Sheila here…..

Hello everyone! First, thanks to all of you for your thoughts and prayers!! Although the journey from our house to the hotel in Beijing was about 45 hours, we managed to get through it without too much stress. It was a very long trip and just knowing you guys were praying for us made it so much better.

Jada is doing great. I was not expecting the Chinese people to be so interested in her. They are drawn to her like a magnet. It’s weird, but not crazy-weird. She did great with the children at the Living Hope orphanage. Sometimes she doesn’t like it when people are ‘in her face’ and those girls were all over her. She tolerated that part of it so well. After the children sang, Terry asked us to mingle with the children and talk to them so they would practice their English more. The first thing Jada said was ‘Let’s play Ring Around the Rosey’. The kids had no idea what she was asking them to do. It started out with her and 3 girls and mushroomed to over 20 kids in the ring. They had a blast. She was always the first one to jump up and say ‘Let’s do it again”.

All said, the visit to the orphanage has been the highlight of the trip thus far (for me).

I’ve mostly been hungry the whole time. Time did not dull the memory – it’s just the same as before. Thank goodness for peanut M&Ms. Hoping to get some real food tomorrow.

In spite of what Richard reported earlier, the temps have been great. Granted, it was muggy at the Great Wall, but I actually contemplated wearing my jacket. So….it hasn’t really been hot at all.

Gina and Billy: I’m sorry to report your luggage did not make it in one piece. One wheel and the plastic broke off and there was no fixing it. So glad you didn’t want it back anyway. You would have loved to see Richard dragging it through the Tokyo airport.

Jada has slept for longer stretches at a time on this trip than she has in the past 2+ years. Go figure. She is sleeping a solid 8 hours before waking up. (Sometimes longer.)

In some ways, this trip has been so different than in 2003. On the other hand, some things are familiar and not as crazy as they seemed the first time. Walking in the door again to the White Swan seemed surreal. It was as if time had stood still and everything looked exactly the same as I remembered it.

Our travel group is great and I’m enjoying the smaller group.

Well, tomorrow is the BIG DAY! I’m nervous and excited at the same time!!!!!!!

We are supposed to leave here at 2:30pm going to the Civil Affairs office to get Ruby!!! It’s hard to get my mind around the fact that I will hold her in my arms in just a few more hours.

Thanks for all your posts to our site!! We love reading them!

It’s all good…….Sheila