Another day has now come and gone. We just got back to the room after being gone all day. Sheila and Jada are getting ready for bed and I thought I would take this wonderful opportunity to tell you how we spent our last full day in Beijing.

After a large breakfast buffet at the Beijing International Hotel where we are staying, we caught the bus with the rest of our travel group to the Jade Factory. We toured the area where they actually carve the jade. There were some marvelous works of art and here are a couple of pictures taken there. Jada seems to be a large attraction wherever we go and the Chinese people who can speak English always want to speak to her. I thought she would blend in so well that no one would even pay any attention to her. Not so!

After the Jade Factory, we traveled to a section of the Great Wall. We had our guide take a group picture of all of us, so here is a picture of the travel group. It was a hot and muggy day, and Jada got a little too warm and began to cough a little, so we came on back down and stayed pretty close to the bus until time to leave.

After we left the Great Wall, we visited one of the Living Hope orphanages. There were about 44 children there and they sang us songs and several of the girls played Ring Around the Rosey with Jada. Imagine a circle of about 20 young girls all laughing and singing. It was awesome!

After the orphanage visit, we stopped for a bite of lunch. Jada had fallen asleep and Sheila stayed in the bus with her while the rest of the group ate. We weren’t especially hungry after the big breakfast, but hey, you take it where you can get it, huh?

We then went to the Silk MArket for some shopping. Walking up and down the aisles was like running the gauntlet. Every little shop vendor tried to get us (as well as everyone else) to inspect their wares. You learned quickly to not make eye contact with anything to the left or right, lest you be swarmed upon like a possum who was a step short of the other side of the road during rush hour. Anyway, Sheila got a few things she had on her list, so I guess the time there was well spent.

We then went to a tea tasting. What a surreal experience THAT was. Heck, I don’t even like regular iced tea, and they were asking me taste colored liquids with names I couldn’t even pronounce. Some were even said to be made from flowers like rose and jasmine and the like. Ugh!

After FINALLY leaving the tea tasting, we went to dinner and then back to the hotel. Tomorrow afternoon, we fly to Guangzhou, Guangdong and are then scheduled to receive Ruby on Monday. We are so anxious to see how she has changed since her referral picture was taken about seven months ago. Stay tuned because if you are reading this, you should be among the very first people to see our precious baby.

Love and kisses to all,
Richard, Sheila and Jada