We are in Tianjin now...

Well, we arrived in Tianjin today by train.  What a wild train station that was!!  Not to mention it was cold and rainy...Brent and I didn't pack jackets, and we didn't have umbrellas.  The train ride itself was only just over an hour and was pleasant.  I studied my sign language book, Susan was reading a book, and Brent was listening to his new Chinese cd on the computer.  Our guide was as sweet and efficient as she could be and we were sad to say goodbye to her, but she took great care of us.  Brent made her a thank you card and it was so sweet.  Our new guide Helen met us at the train station and arranged for 2 men to come onto the train and take all our bags.  It was a LONG walk to get to the van and we don't know how we would have done it without them.  Lots of stairs and heavy luggage and raining.  We are now at the Holiday Inn Tianjin.  The room is a little smaller, but fine and relatively clean, oh, and it has free internet too..yay!  the last hotel charged $22 a day for internet.  We got settled in and I arranged all of the things that we will bring tomorrow to the orphanage.  I brought a huge bag filled with toothpaste and another filled with toothbrushes, all for the kids at the orphanage.  I also brought a big bag of assorted candy for the kids at the orphanage and a gift for the orphanage director and one for the nanny that was closest to Ben at the orphanage.  Tomorrow we leave the hotel at 9:30 to go meet Ben.  The sign language translator will be with us and will accompany everything we do for 2 days.  It is a man who happens to be one of Ben's teachers, which is so perfect.  I hope to find out a lot about Ben from him and also how he's doing in school.  He doesn't speak English, so he will speak the translations to Helen our guide in Chinese and she will translate for us.  

 

We are using Skype to call home and it is so easy and user friendly (and cheap!).  I miss all of you back home... how are you Mike, Blake, Brianna, Lidia, Brinley & Bayla???

Today is Mother's day and I wish I could be with you, but pretty soon we'll all be together again :o)

Happy Mother's Day to mom, Wendy, Traci, Jocelyn, April, Jenny, Laura... and all the other great moms I know!!!

 

I will follow with posting some more pictures ~ mom, please email me to let me know if they come through on the blog.

 

Oh, I emailed Robert to tell him I was here and he emailed back to invite us to get together for lunch sometime this week.  That will be great to meet him and his wife.  Also, Robert has known Ben since he was about 3 years old.  

 

Well, that's all for now.  I'm going to study my books some more then get a good night's rest.  Oh, I am feeling SO much better...almost finished with my antibiotics and really feeling almost normal again.  So thankful for that.  Oh, and I'll be praying some big prayers tonight...that's okay, because my God is so big :o)

 

Love, Lisa