Our Last Day in Beijing

We had another great day in Beijing! We toured Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and took rickshaws into Hunan City. The boys are doing great. Each of them are interested in something different. We had a meeting with the coordinator from our agency in the afternoon. She prepared each of us with instructions on money for the orphanage, what to tip the drivers, flights, and then most importantly all about what to expect with first meeting our children. We have all read and heard about the expectations and hopes of meeting your child, holding them, and all crying tears of joy. Most likely Monday will look nothing like that. These children are often traumatized that they are with you. We will look nothing, smell nothing, and speak nothing like the people in Ingrid's orphanage. She will not like us and want to go back to the orphanage. Shiyran, our coordinator, prepared us that she may cry for hours and possibly even days. We are to be patient, and give her all that we can. We know it will happen. God has given us the gift to care for this child and we know that His plan is all about loving her. In the mean time we will bribe her with M and M's. :) Really- that's the plan. Whatever works at first. Packs of M and M's stashed and ready to go. If that doesn't work Isaac thinks we should try Mike and Ikes. We are really hoping humor can keep us going!
Last night Matt and the boys did something they typically hate doing, yet had a ball. They shopped!!! We walked to the Silk Market down the street- a 5 story building with every knock-off item you can think of. Tennis shoes, jackets and sunglasses were a hit. Noah wanted to buy a silk suit because he thought it would be funny but we cut him off. He also wants to buy a Hello Kitty backpack to bring to school when he gets back. Bjorn was looking at outdoor camping things (tents and all), Ike zoned in on basketball things, and Oskar wanted to bring back a gigantic Samuri sword. Oh dear.
Now it is Sunday morning and we will fly to Nanchang. Ingrid's province is in Jiangxi and they will bring her to our hotel on Monday morning. Oh what joy! Really- it's going to happen! This Sunday morning as we would normally gather to praise God with a community of believers at home, we are joining other families in the lobby to depart all over China and all of us are praising Him here! What an amazing God to orchestrate all of this! We are humbled, joyful, scared, excited, nervous, anxious, delighted, and amazingly peaceful. We will keep you posted!
xoxoxxo
The Andersons (Ok, it's Kris really doing all this blogging. One of these days we will get Coco Matt and the boys to type!) :)