We made it!

After a fourteen hour flight, we arrived in Beijing at 2pm yesterday! As we
boarded the plane, we were pleasantly surprised that it was a very new plane
with touch screen video games, tv shows and movies! The kids loved it and were
entertained the whole time. I think they watched enough tv and played enough
games for a month! They also loved the kids meals on the plane and they were
hesitant to get off when we landed! I am not kidding!
Our guide met us at the airport and brought us to our downtown Beijing hotel. I
was SO relieved to find out that it is clean, huge and very nice and in one of
the best areas of the city..phew! We have two bedrooms and it is very
comfortable.
Last night we were wowed by their super modern malls and we ate dinner on the
7th floor in a restaurant. This was our first experience with the food and we
kind of failed! It was a "hot pot" restaurant where you cook your meats in a
soup in a pot that is inset to the table. This would have been great but the
meats were all things that we would see people eating on those reality shows
where they eat different parts of animals to win. There was frog, fish with
heads, parts of cows I will choose not to name and what looked like worms.
Needless to say, we had some good laughs and ate rice and really good breads for
dinner!
The people here are very kind to us and they LOVE the kids. So far Sydney has
gotten two hugs and Nathan got one hug and a kiss on the head from very kind
Grandma's that are enthralled with the fact that we have four kids.
Last night we stopped at a market by the hotel to get some food and we left the
banannas on the counter. The store clerk drove his scooter to our hotel to get
them to us! We cannot believe how kind everyone here is and that is just one
example!
Thanks for your prayers! We are also praying for the people affected by the
earthquake and Tsunami.