A few more pictures from our last day.....

I have enjoyed the comforts of home and being with my family. I pray I'll never lose the feeling of visiting a third world country. Counting my blessings and hoping to return to the precious kids and staff of Chaoyang.

We're Coming Home!

 

We did more in one day than most people do in a week............but we saw China!!! It was hot and muggy at The Wall but a few people made it to the top. Anna did!! (We won't mention she got lost on the way back and was an hour late to the bus. How does someone get lost going down the steps on The Wall? Ask Anna!)

After lunch, (no weight loss for anybody....we eat every 3 hours it seems) We went to the Jade Factory, Friendship store and everybody's favorite........the Beijing Market!!

Our evening ended with a Kung Fu show and dinner (of course). We said goodbye to our "Guide of the Year" Ying. He lives in VA, so we know we'll see him again (before next year).

It's time to pack. See you soon!!

Saying Goodbye

I knew this day would come. I knew it would be hard. But I never dreamed just how hard it would be to say goodbye to the precious kids of Chaoyang. The day started with painting, crafts and just plain fun. The nannies were gracious enough to let us have access to all of the kids and even give some of them a bath!

We ate lunch at the orphanage and they let us stay all day again. This afternoon we had a wonderful birthday party for all the kids. The room was decorated to the hilt and the smiles on the children's faces were priceless!

Amy and I left a piece of our hearts here. I bet you'll figure who stole it. :)

Enjoy the photos.

Day 4

I am very happy to report that it rained today!! We saw mountains we didn't even know existed. The colors on the buildings came to life and we actually saw sunshine for the first time!

Our day at the orphanage was wonderful. We asked if we could stay all day and not leave for lunch. They were very hesitant, but finally agreed. They are so worried that they are working us too hard and we will not get our rest. The staff prepared a wonderful sit down meal for us. It was all homegrown on the grounds.

The team worked so hard painting, doing crafts and just loving on kids today. We even had a magic show from "Dr. Magic"!! The veterans came to watch too and enjoyed it very much.

I'm not sure how we're going to say goodbye tomorrow. It will be heart wrenching. I've lost count of the number of team members that have said "Next year when we come...." Even our wonderful guide Ying from VA is saying that!

We had several highlights today. The first being our evening dance in the streets. We wore our t-shirts and joined the nightly street dancers. We are quite the celebraties in the city. Our picture was on the front page of the paper this morning, we were on the news tonight, and will be on again tomorrow morning. It was great fun piling in our room to watch the coverage. They did a great job showing us with the kids. Today another newspaper came and did a story and on Friday some "officials" are giving us a send off.

Tomorrow is the big birthday party for the kids. We are so excited to give them their gift bags.

Enjoy today's photos!!

Love you all!
Elizabeth

Random Pictures

It's almost 6am and the internet will let me blog so I thought I'd just post random pictures from our trip so far. We are all awake because the music and dancers start outside our room at about 5am. They can't dance in the circle though...it's been under construction 24 hours a days since we've been here. You've never seen anything like it.