We woke up this morning (Sunday) and fog had set in. Our tour guide recommended that we not go to the Great Wall but instead go to The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and Old Beijing. It was amazing to see the Forbidden City and understand how much history is involved (600 years). The construction is very impressive. Erin and I will have to watch "The Last Emperor" again now that we know more about it. Apparently the movie was shot on location there and our guide pointed out some of the locations that were used for the movie. In the old city, we took a rickshaw and got the chance to visit with a family in their home( this was Erin's favorite part). The small home has been in the family for over 150 years. The homes are very old, small and most don't have any bathrooms or plumbing but the value of the land that they rest on is very high ($35,000/square meter). So in essence, the father that we were talking with was a millionaire. The father/grandfather is a Kung Fu Master of 41 years. He has mastered the art of swords and was extremely gracious in welcoming us in his home. He served us hot jazmine tea, gave us a souvenir knots, and showed us a Kung Fu pose with a sword. What an amazing opportunity to learn about the culture and history of Beijing in a way most tourists don't get a chance to do.

Tomorrow morning is the day that we have been waiting for... The first time we meet our son! We will leave the hotel at 6:20am and go straight to the orphanage. We are the first family on Beijing's new system where the family goes directly to the orphanage instead of a government building to pick your child up. We feel honored and blessed to be the family to be able to do this. We will speak to Barrett's caregiver directly and see the orphanage. We have been told that his orphanage is the Ritz Carlton of orphanages. They don't have any lack of money. We will know more about this tomorrow! please pray for God to prepare Barrett's heart for meeting his mommy and daddy.

it is 8:00 a.m here in Beijing and we are enjoying our first breakfast buffet here at the hotel.it had everything you could imagine to eat. I can honestly say I have never had fried rice and Sichuan spicy cucumber for breakfast, but it was DELICIOUS!!! I guess I won't be losing any weight while I'm here:(

Today were meeting our guide, Helen at 10:00 in the hotel lobby and going to Forbidden city and Tiananmen Square and then to see old Beijing. We thought these tours would be best for today since its foggy and requires a lot of walking. After dinner we will get an early nights rest because we get our sweetie early in the morning!! I will let you know how our day goes.

- Talk to later!

We are T minus4 days!! It has been a long journey but well worth it. The past few days have been absolutely crazy changing our flight, having a garage sale, spending quality time with Bradford, etc. I have been packing all day today and Bradford has been such a big help. I have 3 days left to make phone calls, clean house, get papers notarized, and the list goes on. We haven't left yet and I'm exhausted!!!

Note: We are going to blog each day and post pictures to Facebook.

Prayer request: for God to prepare Barrett's heart for meeting his mommy and daddy, for Barrett to bond with us, for Bradford being away from us for 2 weeks.