Miracle of Mia

A few shots of our hotel.

Here is a few pics of our breakfast each day. Very good food, most tastes like home. We are getting ready for our last day in Beijing. We go to Church and then to the Great wall. We will visit a jade factory and then the famous Duck dinner tonight.















This is Dragonfruit. it tastes like a cross between watermelon and a strawberry. Briley really likes it.

we started the day off at Tian'an men Square, the Palace Museum and the Forbidden city. We finished the day at the Summer Palace. We were out for about 10 hrs. so we are dead, but I thought I needed to put some real pictures up. Everything is massive. The square is the largest in the world. The Palace Museum has over 8700 rooms, it felt like we visited all of them! There was a lot of beautiful buildings and marble statues. I stand in awe of it. I love ancient cultures, Cindy....not so much, Briley enjoyed it. Here are some random shots from today.
The first one is of our guide, Sherry. She met us at the airport yesterday and will be with our group until tomorrow, we couldn't do without her.















































The Birds Nest is not open to the public right now but will be soon. Hopefully we will get closer to it, the Cube, and the Flame tomorrow.

This is what I will look like when we get home. Briley and Cindy just kind of pick at the food. I'll eat whatever they bring out. Most tastes pretty good just has an odd texture. There was something that tasted like a combination of bathroom cleaner and shoe leather and a clear "soup" that tasted fine it just looked like snot.
































Here is one of the many street vendors that are all over. We were warned not to eat from them because you don't know what it is or how clean. Most of it looked and smelled good, even the roasted small animal. It might be frog, not real sure.









Too much Chinese food and you'll have to visit one of these....the famous squatty potty.
I'm sure by the end of tomorrow we will be eating at Mc D's and Pizza Hut.

While on the plane we could get a look at where we are, speed, outside temp. etc... on the video screen at each seat. Here are a couple of pictures from that. I watched Eagle eye about five times so I am an expert on conspiracy theory now.

I had to put one picture up for you Jouppi, Diet Pepsi but no Mountain Dew, but I found Red Bull:)

We will put more pics up soon but here is one right before we got on the looooonnnnngggggggg flight out of Washington DC. See how happy Cindy is. Briley was fine until we were waiting to get off the plane and she didn't make it in the bag. And no Herb didn't get a pic of it. She was fine shortly after. We have a really long day tomorrow and will have lots to share. For now, we need to get some rest. Thank you for all the text messages before we left home and the comments.

Steve

Everything is packed and ready to go. I figured I'd just stay up from Wednesday morning until we board the long flight. Maybe I won't go insane if I'm asleep most of the time. Thanks again for all the text messages. We will miss everyone while we're gone. Please leave us comments at the bottom of the posts so we know whats happening at home.

Steve

I have graduated from the paperwork to the packing, whooohooo!! Almost done with Mia's luggage, Briley's and my own. Medicine and food bag is packed.
I can't believe the day we have been waiting soooo long for is fast approaching. There have been so many ups and downs in this process. I want to thank all of our family and friends who have supported us, encouraged us and prayed for us. This journey has been the biggest step of faith we have ever experienced. At times, it has been emotionally and financially draining, however, we have grown so much spiritually. There were so many times that we had to be reminded to "let go and let God". It has brought new meaning to Psalms 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God". We appreciate your continued prayers as we travel and meet our precious Mia. We expect to experience more challenges along the way, as Mia will be taken from everything she has ever known. Especially pray for her.
Cindy

Oh, and by the way, here is Steve's luggage.

Since many of you have been asking when you would get to read a post from me, here it is. After stressing over paperwork for the last 18 months, including but not limited to fingerprints, background checks, medical history, our life stories from the time we were born, and they tell us there is more to complete in China, I think I deserve a break!
Cindy

No real new info lately, just waiting to leave. 10 days to go! We have our travel conference call on Thursday with our coordinator and everyone that will be in our group leaving on the 29Th. 2 hour phone conversation with 20+ people, I can't wait. Can you feel my excitement? We really enjoy reading the comments so practice up now, we want to know whats happening at home while we are gone. We can't believe that our blog has been viewed around 800 times already and we haven't left yet. Thanks for the love. I'll make sure to keep it updated daily with at least pictures.

Steve

Finally! We have our travel itinerary.

Thursday Jan. 29th
Orlando to Washington 8:38-10:45am -- travel time 2hrs
Friday Jan. 30th
Washington to Beijing 12:30-3:30pm -- travel time 14hrs
Saturday Jan. 31st
Beijing tour; Tiananmen Square, Forbidden city, Summer Palace
Sunday Feb. 1st
Church, Great Wall, and Beijing Duck Dinner
Monday Feb. 2nd
Flight to Mia's province also known as GOTCHA DAY (The day we get Mia)
Tues-Fri. Feb.3-6th
Paperwork, sight-seeing and shopping
Saturday Feb. 7th
Mia's medical exam
Sunday Feb 8th
More paperwork....
Monday Feb. 9th
Consulate appointment
Tuesday Feb. 10th
Pick up Mia's visa
Wednesday Feb. 11th
Hong Kong to San Francisco 12:50-8:30am -- travel time 12hrs
San Francisco to Orlando 12:00-8:00pm -- travel time 5hrs

It's starting to feel surreal. We can't wait to leave, Cindy loves to fly...hahahaha