Walking (Climbing) the Great Wall

Day three was exhausting!  George, our group leader, does a great job of wearing us out so we will be tired and will easily go to sleep.  Here are just a few of the things we did today…visited a Jade factory, climbed the Great Wall of China, watched a Chinese Acrobatics show, and saw the Birds Nest (the 2008 Beijing Olympic Stadium).  All that in one day…we started at 8 a.m. and returned at 8 p.m.  We also spent much of that time in traffic.

The highlight of the day was walking the Great Wall of China.  It literally was “wall to wall” with people.  We were given a chance to go in two directions once we made it to our section.  We chose the path less traveled which we discovered was the steepest walk in the section we were at.  Thus, we spent more time climbing than walking.  It was an amazing experience!

This morning (day four), we catch a plane to the province where Will Hudson now lives.  This is where we FINALLY get to meet our son!  Needless to say we are very excited and little nervous, too.  Tomorrow is our “Gotcha Day” as it is called.  We’ve heard stories of children who just run into their parents’ arms, stories of children screaming, stories of children only wanting one parent and many more realistic “Gotcha Day” stories.  We have no idea what to expect.  We do know that God has gone before each step of this journey and we have the confidence of knowing you are praying for us.  “I don’t know about tomorrow, but I know who holds my hand.”

Some families in our group will be traveling to a different province to meet their children and we also had three more families join us late last night.  We will all meet back up in a week at our third stop to be sworn in together as adoptive families.  Please be praying for all these families as they welcome sweet little children into their arms, too!