Back to Beijing....

We had to be up early today for an 8:40 flight to Beijing, only to find it was about 3 hours late. We entertained ourselves by playing Catchphrase and played with the Praying Mantis we found.. The sweet girls that came to work in the orphanage got up at the crack of dawn to go with us to the airport. One girl told me that she liked me, so she wanted to give me her hairclip. It was so sweet. She was crying when she left us to go to school.

This airport is only open once a week, and you can tell they have too much time on their hands. They made us open all our luggage and took any flammables we had. Mind you, this is our checked luggage, not our carryons. I have to go the rest of the trip without my Bedhead Mousse! What will I ever do???The flight to Beijing was just under an hour, and thankfully everyone had a seat this time. We immediately found a store and shopped for the two foster homes we would be visiting. We then had lunch at Subway, which has never tasted so good to all of us:) It was about a 1/2 hour drive to the Hope Foster Home, which was a wonderful experience. They take in sick babies from many orphanages all around China, while providing a family environment. The nanny to baby ratio is 1:2. It was obvious to us that the babies were flourishing in this environment.

Tomorrow is an early morning as we are off to the Philip Hayden Foster Home. It is about an hour from Beijing. In the afternoon we will be doing some touristy things around the city. Unfortunately it is much hotter here than in Chaoyang.