Climbing the Great Big Wall

1700 steps up are a lot for anyone, especially when the steps are quite uneven, some shallow and others 18 inches high. But when you are Gwen's size, that many steps could be impossible to conquer.

That's what we all faced last week on our visit to the Juyongguan section of the the Great Wall outside of Beijing last week. This section has ten towers, and it takes climbing 1700 steps to reach the tenth one. We all decided to go for it, and amazingly, Gwen kept up pretty well. She did a fair amount of this crawl-type climbing.
We also tried this method for a while, which was slower, but not too taxing for me.
She kept a grin on her face!
Still crawling up! Dad had mercy on Gwen on the way down, and she got a ride on his shoulders a lot of the way.

That night before bed, Gwen's prayer included this line, "Thank you, God, that Jesus help us climb up the Great Big Wall." The way my legs were shaking by the time we made it to the bottom, I am very thankful that Jesus helped us all make it safely up and down!