Best day!!!

Today, China was all ours! We all awoke at 2am for the day. We all collapsed early yesterday with the long plane ride. We were ready for a flat bed. The beds here are typical Chinese beds. Fulls are smaller than ours and hard. Best feeling bed ever after these long days! We got to breakfast right at 6am when they started serving. Breakfast was a nice variety and I'll start by saying this... our hotel is very nice. Very. I was so excited to see fried potato logs. Ahhh, a good filler. Breakfast was going well until I saw a full size roach laying on my potato. Oh my gosh, I composed myself. I handled that one well. We met Cindy, our guide in our lobby at 9am. What an amazing guide! She is so sweet, caring and quickly becoming friend! We had a mini van to ourselves today and a driver. That van rocks. The two middle captain chairs face toward the trunk... it's like a limo just for us - China style! We can all see our the windows well and enjoy all the sights. First thing we did was head to the Temple of Heaven. Wow, I didn't realize it was so expansive. One square mile of viewing!! I took lots and lots of photos on my big camera (treasures and beautiful art at times) but I'll post some quick snapshots on the blog here. As we were entering the gates, an older man came up to us so confused as to why we had a Chinese girl with our children (Joy). With the most proud heart, I looked that man into the eyes and in Chinese said "this is my daughter, my sweet daughter." He gave a bow and said to Joy " you are a very lucky girl! Way to go family!" Justin was impressed with my communication skills. I've never uttered more sweeter words. The look on Joy's face was priceless to see a Mama that was so proud to call her "daughter".

The woman with Eli loved his big blue eyes. People stop us everywhere to love on our children!

Above, are some people we met from Anhui traveling. They were enthralled with our story and didn't know about adoption. Didn't know about adoption... let that sink in. We played hacky sack with a group of people that invited us into the circle. The kids had an all with that. I got the best photos of everything on my big camera, but iPhone snaps will have to do for the highlights. Kids play the game all the way to the elderly. It keeps them nimble and flexible and is a fun pastime with friends. Joy conquerored the squatty potty like a champ. I love them as well... so clean.. just squat and go. Done.

We ate lunch with our guide at the best restaurant across from the Temple of Heaven. We ordered big servings and they brought it out to our round table with the Lazy Susan. We ordered the broccoli (best broccoli that I've ever eaten), steamed rice, Kung Pao chicken (complete with peanuts, chilis and green onions), sweet and sour pork, and a cold noodle dish that I wouldn't have ordered in a million years, yet we just asked Cindy to choose which noodles that she wanted. The thick, handmade noodles came in a large bowl and right before served, they tossed in some beans and finely julienned cucumber and other vegetables. You serve yourself and then get a tiny bit of soy bean paste to mix together - DELICIOUS. I took photos of everything today to put in a big album that I've already bought at home. We left lunch stuffed. So so good. We had some deep conversations with our guide about life. Good, good times. We got back into the van to head to the hutong!!! We rode via rickshaw through the hutong. I've been telling my kids that this was my favorite. .. now it is theirs. The hutong is in old Beijing. It is an amazing place full of family and friends that become family when you live so close.

It's basically a system of housing that makes a square with a courtyard in the middle. Families and neighbors are there, sharing life in the close quarters. Today we visited a family's home and learned all about life in the hutong. It is the coolest! All my good pics are on my camer (how many times am I going to say that! ).

A few days ago, you may remember me telling you that Evie's advocacy name was "Raven". It hit us because "consider the Lilies and the ravens" and almost brought us to our knees. Well, today in that hutong, I look up and out of all the pets in a cage, I see a raven. I had chills from head to toe. I looked up at that bird and said "I'm here,God, I'm listening."

After that tender moment, that raven said "no hao". The bird is just like a parrot. He knows a few key phrases, but will repeat you. I loved this bird!!!!!! I'll post the video on Facebook of the talking raven. Crazy. We were leaving the hutong and we met a man selling huge purple sweet potatoes that had been steamed. He had them in the back of his small utility vehicle. He saw our family coming toward him to pass him by and you could see something in his eyes. He spoke in mandarin to our guide and said that Joy is a blessed girl. He asked if he could gift her a sweet potato. These people in the hutong are poor. This potato was his livelihood. It reminded me of the woman at the well. Then I noticed something else. This man was deeply moved.
He bent down to gift the potato to our daughter and said "any child that enters this family is blessed." And just like that, he passed the steaming hot potato, but he shared something way sweeter... his heart. As I walked away, I turned with tears in my eyes and my hands over my heart and lipped Xie Xie (thank you). His hands went from his heart out to me as I walked away with the biggest frog in my throat. He may have had to abandon one of his children... we don't know, but what I do know is that his heart was very grateful for people that could care for these children. "special moment" is an understatement. There was a heart-wrenching story with that man, though, I just know it.