Hello again, one and all. We began the day at 4:00 o’clock this morning with Jada wide awake. She slept a couple of hours on the plane from Tokyo to Beijing, and she and Sheila are once again passed out in the bed behind me. Slackers! One thing I did forget to mention in my earlier post was something Jada said this morning. After she awoke so early and was her normal, bubbly early-morning self, I heard her tell Sheila "There's Wild in the Child". I have no idea where she got it, but it was oh, so true.

Anyway, I have a couple of pictures I took on the grounds of the Radisson before we ate breakfast. Actually, we got ready for breakfast and it was STILL 30 minutes before the restaurant opening time of 6:00 AM. The first picture was Jada posing in front of an odd shaped little tree that I liked. Then, after breakfast, Jada is in front of the hotel at the pool. We were on the 10th floor and our room overlooked the pool area.

The next picture is a monumental moment. Jada has been trying to learn to blow bubbles with her bubble-gum (be-bum) for several months, sometimes getting quite frustrated when it wouldn't do what she saw others able to do. Well, on the bus ride to the airport, she finally got one to blow and she was SO EXCITED. After that, whenever we heard her grunt, we knew the rumble wouldn’t stop until we saw her bubble and acknowledged its presence.

The next one here is from the airport and is what we have determined fits us to a "T". "Sure thing, how'd you know we'uns wuz frum Tennessee anyhow?" There were plenty of lines categorized as “Chinese Nationals”, but we were herded into one of the few “Foreigners” lines WAAAAY down the asile. Pretty fitting, I must say.

The next shot was taken at the Chinese Acrobat Show. The show didn’t appear to have changed much since the last we saw it, so let’s just say Sheila and I didn’t give it the attention Jada thought it deserved. After Sheila left the autitorium to keep from falling asleep, Jada woke me up telling me that I needed to clap. Busted again!

And the last picture is of one of the performers in the show. All through the performance, Jada kept telling us that she wanted to shake the hands of the people in the show. She was okay with shaking this lady’s hand and having her picture made with her. Jada loved the performance except when one of the dragons (two gymnasts in a costume) came roaring up the aisle where she was sitting on my lap in the aisle seat. She tightened up and jumped to the other side of me and said, “I don’t like that lion”.

All in all, a good day and we are SO happy to finally be in China. Tomorrow is the visit to the Great Wall and to the Living Hope Training Center. I am looking forward to that. I hope to be able to post again tomorrow and possibly, add a few more pictures as well. As always, please keep us in your thoughts and prayers – especially that Ruby will be safe and healthy until we are able to bring her home.

Richard, Sheila and Jada