Last Full Day in China

I cannot believe it is May 10....finally almost time to leave.  We leave for the Beijing airport at 12:30 pm tomorrow (the 11th), and our flight to Chicago leaves at 4pm....we will arrive in NASHVILLE at 7:44pm on our United FLight from Chicago, praying that there are no delays!  Today we had a free day, so we walked through Beijing...about 2-3 miles total.   We stopped at a park we thought was the Temple of heaven park.  The boys had a BLAST playing on the exercise equipment, and Florie played on a playground and loved it....then we figured out it was  just a city park.  Still, there were families, and elderly people everywhere...dancing, singing, doing tai chi, resting...just ENJOYING each other and being outdoors.  This was in the middle of a busy Tuesday.  If you go to Crockett Park on the middle of a Tuesday, how many people do you see?  Not many.  We are all running around like crazy, or looking at Facebook :)  Hmmmm.

We stopped with the boys for lunch at Mcd (yuck...)  FLorie was asleep in the Ergo.  We finished our walk to the Temlple of Heaven, which is also nicely located next to the Toy Market.  We were all pretty spent by then, which is the story of my shopping in China.  I have a list of things I wanted to get ,and get for other people...all of whom had a special something like support, or party, or etc for our adoption.  but every time we would get to get out to shop, we would all be tired, or Florie was upset and I   had to step out out of the store, or it started out a downpour and we all got wet....and so on.  4 kids, busy schedule, not much shopping.  one of my regrets from the trip, but, I suppose that was NOT what we were really here for anyway!

The boys did get a toy, and Ben was able to get his Lego (Stefanie, I was not able to find the ones you talked about!).  William walked over to the Temple of Heaven while we took LT (Little Trouble, aka FLORIE) to get lunch.  He had a great time walking PEACEFULLY around and learning that the temple was where teh emperor used to go to pray for rice to grow.  By peaceful, I mean that he did not have a hoard of people trying to touch his children, pull his children, take pictures of his children whether they said yes or not......and so on.  Yep, it is time to head home!
We are chilling for a few minutes before we go get our last  Chinese meal.  We love the family style and lazy susan at the restaurants.  We will miss many things about China, but we are also eager to get home and get back to reality....to see our pups, to get Florie in her room....and to get back in a normal groove.  Most of the last few months have been about this trip....I cannot believe it is ending, but I can finally say that it is TIME!
I have read Jesus Calling everyday of this trip....it has been perfect for each day, and all about TRUST.  To me, that is what life is all about.  learning to TRUST God, that He has planned every detail of every day.  Nothing that happened was not planned by HIM.  And I am so thankful for that!
When we took our taxi back from the Temple of Heaven (since NO ONE was up for a 3 mile walk back!), I told William that it would have been easier to have flown back to the US with Florie one week ago.  She was still a bit demure, quiet, still in her shell.  NOW, she is starting to challenge us a bit....she has a big opinion of how things should go....her way, that is.  She is very spunky , and mischievous.  She is very smart, and pays attention to everything.  Routine will be very good for her.  I can tell we have lived in the hotel without good boundaries for a bit too long.  Structure (well, structure with 3 older brothers!) is needed.  Tomorrow's flight should be interesting!  Please pray it goes well....and that we all sleep a bit.  We had BAD jet lag on the way here, so hopefully this time the boys will listen and nap a bit better.
I am ready for SALAD, and my P90X...a lady asked me yesterday if I was pregnant....William knew at the moment, it was time to head home, LOL!
Hope you all are well! SARAH, Happy Birthday!

Love,

Eve