Ni Hao from Beijing!

We made it to Beijing yesterday afternoon at 3pm China time. Our day of traveling was uneventful but very LONG! We left our house at 5:30am on Thursday morning (after only sleeping about 3 hours), went to pick up Scott and Rachel at their house and then headed for the airport. We said goodbye to the kids really quick and then headed into the airport to get checked in. After going through security we ate a nice breakfast and then it was almost time to board our plane to Detroit.

The flight to Detroit was only about 1 hour and 45 minutes long. When we got to Detroit, we had about 2 hours until we had to board our plane for Beijing so we stopped and had a nice meal at Chili's. Then we grabbed a bunch of snacks and drinks for the plane ride and waited just about 10 or 15 minutes then they called for boarding.

We found our seats quickly as they were towards the front of the plane. They were great seats. We had the middle seat and the aisle seat on the right side of the plane. The guy next to us that had the window seat was a really nice 29 year old guy who was traveling to see a friend in Beijing. He was a good seat partner for the long trip :)

Each seat had touch screen video screen in the headrest. So, we had hundreds of movies, tv shows, songs, games, etc. at our fingertips. It was awesome! It totally saved the day!! I can't imagine how long it would've seemed without that!

J and I each watched about 3 movies, we took some short cat naps while listening to music. As tired as we were, we just couldn't really get comfortable enough to get any good sleep. My lower back was aching before we even got off the first plane in Detroit! I had brought one of those heat wraps just in case and I am SO glad I had it!! After the first hour or two, I put that on and once it got hot, it TOTALLY saved the day!!!! It helped so much. It even stayed warm the entire flight!

At the suggesting of a good friend, I wore knee high compression socks and I really think it helped me tremendously. We stretched as much as possible, got up and walked around/stood for 10 minutes or so every hour or two and that really helped.

They served us 2 full meals, a big snack and also came around with drinks/water about 3 other times. It was a great flight!

I was so ready to get off the plane by the time we landed in Beijing! It was crazy to think that after all this time and after all that traveling, that we had made it!

We had a very easy time going through immigration, getting our luggage and going through customs. Our terminal wasn't very crowded at all. After we got through customs, we walked out and our guide was right in front of us holding a sign with all of our names on it!

His name is Rocky and he is very, very nice. He took care of us from there. He got us out of the airport and to the van waiting for us outside. He and the driver loaded up our luggage and then as we were driving to the hotel, he gave us a quick run through of what to expect and then just started answering that many questions that we all had!

The traffic is crazy. So many cars! He even told us that to help control the traffic situation, depending on the last digit of your license plate number on your car, there are certain days that you can't drive. For every personally owned vehicle, there are 2 days of the week that they can't drive their car. Wow! Life sure if different here!

We unpacked some of our stuff and quickly realized there was no way we were going to be able to stay up another 4 hours! We were too tired! So, we went down to the Chinese restaurant on the 2nd floor of our hotel. No one there speaks English! And we speak NO Chinese! Uh oh! They gave us picture menus and we pointed to what we wanted and hoped it would turn out ok.

We ended up having lamb, a hot shrimp dish, fried rice and some delicious meat filled dumpling things that we forgot the name :) And we washed it down with coke! I like my drinks cold and always order with extra ice... so I was already mentally prepared for the lack of ice. My mouth is dying for a COLD drink of something already and it's only very early in the morning on Day 2! Not a good sign :) All kidding aside, it'll be totally fine :)

We went back to the room after dinner and took quick showers and each took an Ambien. I was trying to do some things around the room but those meds kicked in fast and I could hardly stand up. We both fell right to sleep a little after 7 and slept until about 3:30 am this morning. We each woke up a few times, but were able to go back to sleep pretty quickly after waking. (Thank you sleeping pills!) :)

We got to Skype with Meme, Papa, Rhett and Gracie for a little bit already this morning so that was awesome! We couldn't really see them because the video screen connection just wasn't working, but they could see us and we were able to talk pretty well with only a little delay. Being able to hear from them made my day! We are hoping to Skype with Braden soon too. He isn't near a computer today.

Today, we are going to have breakfast in our hotel, then meet our guide at 7am to walk to Tienneman Square, look around then walk back. Then our driver will pick us up and we will take the hour and 1/2-2 hr van ride to the Great Wall. After that, we will tour the summer palace. Tonight we are planning to go to a Chinese acrobat show.

Tomorrow, we are going to take a rickshaw tour of the Hutong district before catching the high speed train to Shanghai!

Our gotcha day is scheduled for 9am Monday, so that's about 8pm Sunday night back home. Only 2 more sleeps apart!! And we'll finally have our baby girl in our arms!!! Yay!!!!!!!

Thank you guys for all of your prayers! We can definitely feel them! Keep them coming, please! We have a long 2 weeks still ahead of us!

Love you all!!
I tried to upload pictures, but it's going SO slow and I don't have time. Will upload some when I can!