My dear friend Anne

It was so great to have my friend Anne,  from Belgium spend a week and half at New Hope with me.  Anne has a heart for orphans like myself, and was so excited to have the opportunity to meet the babies that I had often spoke about.  She was invaluable during the transition from Chelsea leaving, and me taking over the preschool class.  After lots of hard work around the orphanage, I was excited to take her out for a day of sight seeing.  

 First stop,  the Great Wall and then to let her do a bit of shopping at the Pearl Market. Though New Hope is located in Beijing, it is on the outskirts, so taking a trip into the big city is a drive!  Beijing is it is the size of the whole country of Belgium or the State of Maryland!  Our day started  with an hour and half drive to the wall. We were able to go to the same section of the wall that I have been to on my past trips. I was excited about this because I was familiar with how it was set up and the area. We took the cable cars up and then we walked all around for almost 2 hours. It was so nice because the weather was warm (I could have screamed for not wearing shorts!) and the wall was not that crowded which made it even better. Anne really enjoyed it and we had a nice time just having some girl time before she leaves.  I so thankful for this little extra girl time b/c before I know it I will be here alone.  After the wall we headed to the Pearl market which is always an adventure of which booth to stop and look at and who can get the best deals! Anne had her mind set on what she wanted to get and she was able to accomplish her goal. After a fantastic day out we were invited over to dinner at Robin and Joyce’s house ( the founder ’s of New Hope), it was a nice evening of chatting with them and eating some more “Western” type dishes.