Dear Vivi -
Florida is not China.
We knew that going into this whole process, but we had it confirmed today in spades when Daddy and I climbed part of the Great Wall. Oh. My. Goodness. That is a lot of steps. Daddy and I think that we may have climbed more steps walking the wall than we have in the last 9 1/2 years in Florida, where we tend to think it's challenging to have to go up more than one step to enter a building and almost everything is one story.
But we pushed our aerobically-challenged bodies and got ready to climb this incredible structure and world wonder.
Silly Daddy - that's the wrong wall!
The view as we started our ascent.
There has been a tradition that couples who place a lock along the chains that runs the length of parts of the wall will "lock their love" together for all eternity.
Our guide explained to us that this is not really an active tradition anymore, as they're running out of space to do it. But it's a really neat sight to see all of these locks shining in the sun.
The view from our first "pit stop" (actually what could have passed for a castle tower). We were already at a pretty high altitude.
A gift stop carved into the side of the mountain. Apparently Disney World isn't the only place that will put a gift shop just about everywhere.
We took the road less encouraged, and traveled upward and onward...
...to the the next castle tower.
We made it!
Our official family stance on graffiti, just so you know, Vivi, is that we do not condone it. However, this piece that we found in that castle tower was pretty spot on.
A view through one of the tower windows.
The view down to the parking lot from where we stood. We were pretty impressed with ourselves!
The view as you're looking the rest of the way up from as high as we got. Daddy and I made it higher than anyone else in our group, except for one man who made it at least one more tower.
Proof that we were there!
The view back to Beijing was really stunning. You can see the city way in the distance.
After climbing back down, which is almost harder than going up because of how uneven all the steps are, we found this gift shop. Note the sign which says, "Hero Certificate Issue Office." Chairman Mao declared that you weren't a hero until you climbed the wall. Before we climbed it, we thought that was a little unfair. Now we think he was a genius and totally right - although we didn't buy the certificate to prove our hero status.
On our way back to the hotel, we stopped at a factory that made beautiful copper-inlaid items, a trademark of the area. I have to be honest, Vivi, and say that this was the first time so far that I was grateful that your brothers were not with us. The mothering instinct totally kicked in and I had the urge to grab the hand of every child I saw and head for the nearest exit so that little hands didn't make big messes with very expensive pottery.
Our guide also had the bus driver take us home on a route that had us passing many of the buildings used when Beijing hosted the Olympic games in 2008. This picture is for Pop-Pop and Uncle Ryan - it's the building where the ping pong games were held.
The "water cube" where all of the swimming events were held, with the Bird's Nest stadium in the background.
A better picture of the very impressive stadium.
As I'm writing this, it's about 3:30 a.m. Beijing time on Sunday, December 1. Daddy and I feel pretty good throughout the day, but are struggling to get our clocks set to our new time zone at night and aren't sleeping as much as we should. In a few hours, we will get on a plane and fly to Zhengzhou, where we will get you. Just over 24 hours from now, we will have our Gotcha Day and you will finally be ours.
We couldn't end this post, however, without acknowledging that today is your birthday. Mommy's goal in this whole process was to have you before you turned two, and we missed it by one day. We hate that you are having to spend this day in an orphanage, not getting to blow out candles and eat cake and get sung to and open presents and be properly celebrated. We do rejoice however, that this is the last birthday that you will ever spend without us. We will have a huge party next year to celebrate your birthday and your Gotcha Day anniversary all rolled into one.
But for now we say Happy Birthday, dear Vivienne, through this blog, and pray that it somehow reaches your little ears. We love you!
Love,
Mommy and Daddy
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