Yesterday we met other CCAI families including Hillary who works at CCAI and had helped us throughout Emily's adoption. Quite a few families are adopting their second child and most of them are older children. So it's been nice talking with them! Somehow we arrived one day later than all of the other CCAI families..so we missed Tianamen Square tour. Our guide is arranging a personal tour for us today. All the other families are flying out today to their adoptive child's province. We are taking the bullet train to Tianjin tomorrow.
Here we are at The Great Wall. Jim, Emily and I only went to the first tower since the whole path was pure ice! Mom and Dad made it to the second tower. One couple acutally made it all the way to the top! We decided that next time we come back for the Heritage tour...we are coming in MAY!! WE FROZE!! It's pretty amazing to see the wall in person and to try and figure out how they built it and how they hauled all the stone up the steep hills!
After the Great Wall, we went to lunch as a group and defrosted a little. After lunch we went to see the Flying Acrobats Show. It was very good! Emily loved watching the acrobats jump off of spring boards and fly into the air. She was clapping and smiling...until she passed out from sheer exhaustion halfway through the show. I think Jim fell asleep too! It was a long day. This trip has been so different than Emily's trip. It's almost like we are spectators this time instead of being in the moment like we were last time. I still can't believe we're really here. It sounds stupid but at the acrobatics show I suddenly realized that the acrobats were Chinese!! DUH!! We are trying to prepare for tomorrow and getting Nathan but we are just trying to survive through today.