Days 2 and 3

So, I’m a day behind in blogging due to some internet issues yesterday. Here’s the post from yesterday and little about today… On Saturday, we experienced an exciting day at the Great Wall and Forbidden City, as we got to know each other better. The Forbidden City was huge! And the detail on the buildings was amazing. The Chinese are very talented people. We have seen many different artists in action as we walked through the markets at both places. We saw a man hand carving pictures in a piece of marble, a man palm/finger painting beautiful paintings, and many more amazing artists at work. We also toured a factory where they make Cloisonné, which is ancient technique for decorating metalwork. (See the picture below). The process is very lengthy and was quite interesting to learn about. The final product is beautiful! I now wish I would have taken pictures of all of these artists at work and their final products. That’s the amateur blogger in me coming out! I do have a picture of the process from the Cloisonné factory and a huge vase. See below.

The great wall was pretty awesome! The steps were SO steep and some of them were calf- height, so it was literally “climbing”! They were also very uneven, too, so you had to really watch where you were stepping. I set out to reach the top. Ha! I was only able to make it to the first tower, but it was far enough to buy the shirt that says “I climbed the Great Wall!” This is definitely something that I never imagined I would actually get to do!

So far the food continues to be very good! It’s all served family style (here’s a picture of our lunch at the Cloisonné Factory).

They serve us SO MUCH food at each meal. I have no idea how the Chinese are such thin people. I guess it’s the chopsticks…makes for very slow eating and the plates are very small, too. I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the vegetables. They eat broccoli and cauliflower and corn! Who would have thought they eat corn in China! Although I have to say, eating corn with chopsticks…very tricky! So far we’ve only had a few questionable foods (as in, we couldn’t figure out what it was). Surprisingly, I’ve been pretty open to trying the new things. There’s only been a couple of things I just couldn’t stomach…one being a shrimp on a stick with eyes, legs, and all. While we are used to peeling the shrimp before eating it, some of our Chinese guests were eating the whole thing. I did not try this delicacy, as you know, I am not keen on shrimp, anyway. Some of the foods I have tried include: roast duck which was sliced and you wrapped it up in a very thin tortilla-like wrap that they called a “pancake”, lotus root, slices of pumpkin dipped in the yolk of a duck egg and then fried (which, by the way, was quite delicious), some sticky sweet potato treats (don’t know what they were called, but they were fabulous!), and tonight we had hot corn juice to drink with our dinner. Different, but delicious! I have really been enjoying learning about an experiencing the culture here. There are many things that are so different. The food, of course, but also the toilets (we call them squatty potties…oh the things we take for granted sometimes, such as our western toilets and having toilet paper in the stalls), the social pragmatics, and the driving. Oh my goodness, the driving! The traffic laws over here are more like suggestions. It’s best just to close your eyes and pray when it comes to the rides in the van. The best part, so far, has been getting to know everyone on the team. We are so diverse in age and from all over the US—Texas, Minnesota, Virginia, Kentucky, and of course Tennessee. We have several young girls on the trip, too, (about half the team) and the rest are around my age, give or take a few years). It’s amazing to me and so cool to see such young girls already so devoted and in tune with God! It’s only been two days and I feel like I everyone so well already. I can only imagine how close we will all be by the end of the trip. Here we all are.

Today we traveled to the city where the orphanage is and had dinner with some of the orphanage staff. Our flight was smooth and uneventful, which as good thing! We are just resting in the hotel the rest of the evening. And tomorrow, we meet the kids! I’m so excited to meet the kids and to see how God is going to use me on this trip. I have been so curious as to what my purpose in this is and why God has called me to do this so suddenly (at least it felt sudden). I look forward to it being revealed. Pray that my eyes will be opened to His will for me during all of this and for all of our team members and that we will be open to and willing to say “Yes” to whatever he calls us to do during and after the trip! More to come soon…

We're Here!

Tried to post this yesterday, but had trouble with internet connection! After a VERY long trip, we are finally here in China! It is so strange to think that everyone I know and love is half a world away! Our trip here was LONG! I woke at 4:30 a.m. on Thursday and flew out of Nashville at 7:55. Upon arriving in Chicago, I met up with the team! We had a few hours before the plane was scheduled to take off for China where we got to know each other a bit. The ended up being delayed two hours! Our first test of patience and flexibility, no doubt! After fourteen hour plane ride, we arrived at 5:00 p.m. on Friday, got to our hotel around 7:00 and then went out for dinner. I couldn't really sleep on the plane. I dozed off for a few minutes here and there and maybe got 2 or 3 hours of sleep total. By the time I went to bed last night, I had been awake (with the exception of the few cat naps on the plane) for more than 24 hours. You would think I'd have been exhausted. Amazing how the Lord works...he gave me the energy and strength I needed to get through that trip. Thank you for your prayers on that and keep 'em coming, please? Another praise is that Todd reports that Natalie has been sweet and compliant (not demonstrating those "terrible twos" we were experiencing for a couple of weeks before the trip, which was enough to drain your patience quickly even when you had a tag-team approach). Thank you for the prayers there, as well and keep those coming, too! Todd has a long 10 days ahead of him! Last night for dinner, we went to a little noodle shop. It reminded me of a little Chinese take out place you would go to back home. However, the food was AMAZING!! It was cool to see them making the noodles and there was a cute little chopstick dispenser (kind of like our straw dispensers). Our guide ordered for us and we had a big bowl of noodles with beef in this delicious broth. SO stinkin good! If all the food is like this, I will have no troubles!! More to come about our trip to the Great Wall and the Forbidden City yesterday. We are about to head to the airport to fly into the city where the orphanage is. We have a three hour flight and a little bit of a drive, but not sure how long. I hope to post more tonight about yesterday's adventure! Until then...