This is Mike...I'm sure Sheila will be doing most of the posting (and may heavily edit what follows ;-)

But it's 1:30 in the morning (China time), and I'm wide awake. So I decided to jot down a few notes. I did get about 5 hours of sleep, but my body thinks it's 11:30 in the morning, and I've slept in...

Pastor Andrew and his wife were there BRIGHT AND EARLY and at 3:30 AM to pick us up for the drive to the Nashville airport. Sheila and I were pleasently surprised that our bags were checked through to Beijing. So with carry on in hand (or in Abbey's and my case, on our backs - backpacks) we set out for security.

One of the reasons we got to the airport even a little earlier than we needed to be, was because we were a little concerned about airport security...With all our medications, plus the "emergency meds" we brought for Olivia, we thought sure we would be detained for a manual search...NOPE, we sailed right on through!!!

Our flight to Newark, NJ took off right on time. 2 hours later we landed, and Abbey's first question was "Do they speak english here, like we do in America?"

Our flight to Beijing left Newark right on time, and we settled down for the 13 hour flight. There were some pleasent surprises!! Unlike many domestic airlines, Continental still serves food and drink on their longer flights-for free. Over the course of the flight we had three meals. A "full" dinner around 3:00 in the afternoon, with salad, "steak" (pretty good, but more of a mystery meat), and a candy bar for dessert. Around 9:00 in the evening we had a "light snack" of a cheeseburger and haagan daas ice cream. And for "breakfast" at midnight (about 1:00 PM Beijing time) we had scrambled eggs and sausage.

In the airport we conected with our felloew Living Hope Adoption families- 8 other families. 1 hour later our facilitaors in China showed up. As in other large cities- rush hour traffic can be very unpredictable!


We were VERY tired- but we wanted to stay up to force our bodies into the new time zone. (14 hours ahead of TN time!) We were all nodding off over dinner- but we madeit through- after being up for over 24 hours we settles into sleep. Unfortunately the beds here are ROCK HARD!! Abbey got the best deal in the soft cushy hide a bed- irronically she of all of us can sleep anywhere.
We look forward to a little sight seeing today- the Orphanage for LIving HOPe -www.livinghopeintl.org & the olympic stadiums.



God bless you all & keep us in your prayers!