One Year Ago June 14th - 16th

One year ago my brother and I started our journey to get ShayLa Elizabeth O'Brien. We had such a great time and truly miss China. I am writing about my memories of our trip. Each day Shay, Nathan and I have sat down and looked at the video, pictures and talked about what was happening last year. I can not wait to take Shay and Nathan back some day.

On June 14th we were traveling and due to the time change lost this day. It was worth the lost. We arrived late around 10:00 p.m. The airport was huge and very nice. We found Chandler our guide without much trouble and the drive from the airport to the hotel was exciting. Just so excited to be in China. Still feeling some disbelief. The city is huge and even at that time the streets were every crowded. Our hotel was very nice and the beds were not to hard. The strangest thing was having to leave the key in a slot on the wall so the lights and AC would work. By day two we realized that is one of us left our key in that the AC would stay on all day. SPOILED AMERICAN!!!.

June 15th we got up early met our group in the lobby and headed for Tian'an Men Square. I remember that the streets were very crowded and many people were on bikes. It was interesting to see all the different things they could do with a bike. Tian'an Men Square was much larger than I thought it would be. When I've seen it on TV filled with people you don't realize just how many people it can hold until you stand in the middle of it. My favorite part of the day was the Forbidden City. The history and beauty of the buildings were amazing. Our guide did a good job of educating us. Chandler was fun and I remember he was so excited about coming to the US later in the summer. I hope he had a great time. It was also very hot. We enjoyed Starbucks in the middle of Tian'an Men Square and later after we came home heard that they had shut it down. I got to see my first squatty potty. Luckily I didn't have to use one. They had western toilets also.

June 16th we toured the Great Wall. This was my favorite site of the entire trip. It is so big and hard to believe that it was built by people so long ago. We had a nice day and John made it all the way to the top. My knee was still bothering me so I only made it to the second tower. I remember thinking how strange it was to have people trying to sell things to us even up on the wall. They were persistent but nice. One of the older men kept following me around he would smile and come back again later. We did end up buying some of the coins. I know they are not real but Nathan loved them. Later in the day we went to the Cloisonne Factory and after that by the Olympic area. In the pictures you can see where they were still working on the building card the "Bird's Nest" and the other one is a picture of it finished. Everywhere you looked Beijing was getting ready for the Olympics. They had so much construction. I wondered how they were going to make the haze go away. We went to one of the Olympic stores and bought a number of gifts.

We had seven families that toured with us in Beijing. All of the children in our group were Special needs so the next day we split into smaller groups and head to the province where our children were waiting.

I want to thank my brother for the great pictures. He did a great job of capturing what we saw. Now we are sharing it with ShayLa. Every time she sees something in China she says "My China" I wish she understood more so we could ask her questions. I am not sure she really remembers. I know that did a great job caring for her. She is a joy and I am so blessed to have her in my life.