SATURDAY-DAY 3-January 20th

Wow we slept well. We woke up 8:30 am. The Harvey's had scouting things and were gone until 1:30 pm. I got in the bath because I had a headache and was congested. the air here is terrible and the one thing we've discovered that we forgot so far is my inhaler! Hopefully I will be fine without it but but we really haven't even gone anywhere and my lungs are hurting and I am wheezing. So is KG. We also talked to Amanda on the phone. After our conversation last night we discovered that we wouldn't be able to stay with Amanda prior to the officially hand off. That was very disappointing but we have to follow the rules. That would mean staying in Beijing longer then we thought. We started getting exciting thinking we would be able to relax in Beijing and and take our time seeing the sites. Now that has changed again! We learned by this conversation that they were able to pull some strings and get our first appointment early and now we have to leave Beijing on Monday. Crap, now we are going to be rushing again to see everything we wanted but now the Harvey's are gone and half the day has been spent relaxing inside instead of seeing the sites! Ah well, roll with the punches! We finally decided to call them around 1:30 pm to make them aware of the changes. They came home right away, made a deal with a taxi to stay with us all afternoon and sent us on our way by 2:00 pm. We went to Tian'anmen Square first. I wasn't that impressed and was annoyed by all the hagglers. We just weren't expecting that. We only stayed there for an hour. We then went to Temple of Heaven from 4-5:00. We purchased the audio tour and really enjoyed that because it helped us know what we were looking at. It was very entertaining. We could have spent a lot more time there! Unfortunately most of the tourist things that we wanted to do closed at 5:00 so we came home after that arriving about 6:00 pm. It was so nice having a taxi just waiting for us at the end of each stop and not having to worry. Lance speaks Chinese so he gave him all the instructions. Plus they gave us Donya's cell phone in case we needed anything or had any questions. I can't imagine how we would have gotten around without them! We beat the Harvey's home so we stood outside and walked the neighborhood until they arrived. They ordered Chinese take-out and KG was in heaven. I liked it too. Jeremy is an incredible piano player with quite the set up. He is legally blind and therefore can't read notes. He just plays and composes and the electric piano records it on a computer and shows the notes really large on a screen and then he makes cd's. We were very entertained by him for a good portion of the night. He also does a fabulous imitation of Bill Cosby and has most of his skits memorized. We had fun getting to know all the kids a little better that night. Melissa was excited to have a couple things in common with me like disliking fresh tomatoes but liking tomato soup and tomato sauce as well as our dislike for watermelon. :) She is also a good artist but lacks confidence so we had fun building her up. She drew a great picture of me that will now go on our fridge, maybe even framed as a memento of our trip. DJ decided he needed in on all this fun as well and drew a great picture of KG. He also drew some Chinese characters and spent time trying to teach KG what they meant. Very cute. He is such a smart kid and eager to learn. He will do well with his new family. We are just in love with him and if he wasn't already spoken for, we'd nab him up. He just needs to get to where he can get some surgeries for his back. His poor little spine is in the shape of an 's'. Marc has been a little antisocial so far but we will crack him before we leave! :)
Day 3 Photos-Beijing-Tian Anmen Square
Day 3 Photos-Beijing-Temple of Heaven