Thursday's update

Hi all! Still can't seem to rotate the photos in Paint, it appears that that functionality is disabled for some unknown reason. So, as Bro said in an earlier comment, you just have to get a little dizzy to follow along.

Today, a few of the families had the opportunity to visit their children's orphanage. A terrific chance for all. Sophie's orphanage is not open to the public, and it is at least a 4 hour drive from here on bad roads, so a trip even to that city was not possible. I do have pictures of the orphanage from an online site, and Sophie's caretakers were kind enough to fill up two disposable cameras with photos, so we are anxious to have those developed.

For the remaining families, both Rose (the national guide) and Shirley (the Nanchang guide) had arranged a trip to the countryside to see a typical farming village outside Nanchang. It was about a 30 minute drive and the roads got worse as we got away from the city. It was a pretty small village. My guess is that there might have been several hundred people who lived there. However, it wasn't countryside as we would typically think of it...the skyline to the city still loomed in the distance.

Anyway, this was such an amazing excursion. The people were so interested in us...just as we were curious about them. A few of them walked up to greet us as we departed the bus, and many followed us as we walked along the street through the village. These folks greeted us. You can see that the little boy is wearing split pants - no diapers for these little guys. They just squat and go wherever and whenever they need to!

In the rice field...

Sophie and I in front of some of the "farm equipment"...

These folks followed us around for a lot of the stroll. We must have looked like space aliens to them. They were all so pleasant and interested in why we were there. Shirley was a big help in communicating with them.

I took several shots of this woman...her face has such character.

Sophie enjoyed the stroll through the village too...

It was a priceless visit that I will remember for a long time. And I think EJ has a whole new appreciation and thankfulness for the life that she has.

On the way back to the hotel, we stopped at a porcelain shop. In addition to being known for its agriculture, the Jiangxi province is known for its porcelain. We bought a small tea set and some porcelain chopsticks, and EJ picked out some jewelry.

We got back to the hotel around 1 and had some free time. Sophie napped for a while, and a few of us headed to the shopping district. K and EJ stayed with Sophie and then strolled her around the block a little later. I bought some adorable shoes for Sophie (about $2.25) and a cute outfit for EJ for about $10.

Speaking of outfits, the tailor (or is it -er?) delivered the custom dresses we had ordered. Aren't they beautiful? EJ tried hers on and looked like a princess.

Sophie modeled the hat that I ordered with her dress. They made it a little big so she can grow into it.

That's it for tonight. Tomorrow morning, we pack up again. K has about 90 minutes of paperwork to do for our trip to the American Consulate's office in Guangzhou. We have to have our bags packed and ready to go by 2. We leave the hotel at 3 to go to the airport. Our flight to Guangzhou is around 5:00 and shouldn't take more than 1:15. You probably won't hear from me again until Saturday. This weekend is free time, so we plan to do a lot of shopping in Guangzhou...

Wednesday's Update

Sophie is doing so incredibly well. She slept 11.5 hours again last night (of course, so did EJ!). Yesterday was a quiet day, as is today. We did the Walmart thing, had our clean laundry delivered (every item is individually tagged, and like items are all bagged together). It was about $40 to do all of the laundry thus far. At 2:30 yesterday, the tailor came to the hotel. I ordered matching dresses for EJ and Sophie. Sophie's will be her christening gown. EJ helped to pick the fabric - very beautiful gold with pale pink. I believe it has a dragon pattern，and is trimmed with gold brocade. I ordered EJ's to be long, and Sophie's for a little bigger than she is now. It should be about $50 for the two dresses,　anｄ　ａ　ｍａｔｃｈｉｎｇ　ｈａｔ　ｆｏｒ　Ｓｏｐｈｉｅ．Ｗｅｈａｄ　ｄｉｎｎｅｒ　ａｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｈｏｔｅｌ　ｌａｓｔ　ｎｉｇｈｔ．

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Ｏｈ　ｗｅｌｌ，　ｂａｃｋ　ｔｏ　ｔｈｅ　ｒｏｏｍ　ｆｏｒ　ｍｅ．　　Ｓｏｐｈｉｅ＇ｓ　ｎａｐ　ｓｔａｒｔｅｄ　ａｔ　１：３０，　ｓｏ　Ｉ＇ｍ　ｓｕｒｅ　ｓｈｅ　ｉｓ　ａｗａｋｅ．　　ＥＪ　ａｎｄ　ｔｗｏ　ｏｔｈｅｒ　ｇｉｒｌｓ　ｏｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｔｒｉｐ　ａｒｅ　ｏｕｔ　ａｔ　ｔｈｅ　ｐｌａｙｇｒｏｕｎｄ　ｗｔｉｈ　ｔｈｅ　ｇｕｉｄｅｓ　ａｎｄ　ｓｈｏｕｌｄ　ｂｅ　ｂａｃｋ　ｓｏｏｎ　ｔｏｏ．

Summer Palace photos

Here are some pictures from our Summer Palace tour on Friday.

We also went to the Beijing zoo to see the pandas. This guy did a nice pose for me!

And more...

Here's a shot of EJ and some of the other kids on the trip at the entrance to the Summer Palace, where we toured on Friday.

More pics

Okay, here are some pics from a few days ago. The first is obviously from the Great Wall. This was as high as K and E made it. I went to that small platform between where we are in this photo and the next tower up. In this photo, we are standing on top of one of the guard towers. As you can see, EJ had her hair done into a traditional Chinese hairdo by the nice ladies at the jade factory.

Here we are in the rickshaw before the hutong tour. K's driver was so crazy in traffic that our guide yelled at him when we got off at the first stop and they fired him from our gig and got a replacement driver!


And yes, these are fighting crickets, raised by the hutong family where we had lunch. I don't think I ate any crickets there, but you can't be sure! Actually, the food we had there was the best meal so far!


And Uncle E, this one's for you. Here we are in Tiananmen Square with the entrance to the Forbidden City behind us.

By George, I think I've got it!!!! PHOTOS!!!!

I can't believe how difficult this photo thing has been, but I think I've got it. I was able to make copies of some of the pics and resize them to upload. I'm going to try to upload the important ones here in several posts.

The first is me holding Sophie right after she was handed to us! The man behind EJ is Mr. Guo. He is the director of Sophie's orphanage. We were lucky enough to get his email address so we can send photos and updates to the nannies.

Here is K right after I was done holding Sophie. Sorry, can't rotate photos, but I figured you'd be so happy to see them that you'd be willing to turn your head 90 degrees!

Here are Sophie and I at dinner last night.

And here she is yesterday before our outing to Walmart! That was a trip. And we even had KFC for lunch. Today, our guide ordered us Pizza Hut and it was the most delicious pizza I ever had!

Update from phone call

This AM CDT we received a call from China. It wasn't easy. It took three attempts to get the call to us. While phone cards and phones are available in China, it doesn't necessarily mean that the parts of the system work together as well as they could. Similarly, computers and their connection to the Internet may be ubiquitous but functionality is less so. Thus this update on the Chinese adventure is from phone and posted by the guest host.

They are in Nanchang and will be there until Friday when they depart for Guangzhou by plane. Though they didn't say so, it is likely that getting the entire group through the legal steps takes time but individuals will have some time for R&R and touring. Thus they went to the most Chinese of American enterprises, WalMart. K noted that everything there has a security tag on it, even the $1.00 pair of shoes they bought for Sophie. It isn't clear whether they have a high retail theft rate and need security tags or a low retail theft rate because they have security tags. When asked K said it really wasn't much like the WalMart in the US.

To avoid the hassle of the market place they shopped another way too. A seamstress came to the hotel and measured "the girls" for dresses. In attending to the time limits on the phone call we neglected to ask if 1) "girls" included Lisa and 2) if the dresses are matching. More on that matter when we hear from them next. That may not be until Friday when they get to Guangshou.

Sophie is unfazed by all of this activity. She cries little or not at all. Eats well and has shown a fondness for a new addition to her formula. Evidence? She slept 11 continuou hours. L & K haven't said so but we imagine that they hope Sophie will do the same on the return flight.

EJ has been getting her quota of swimming. She has made good use of the hotel pool which is located on the 4th floor. It has large glass windows overlooking the Gan River. Like just a few other in the world, it flows south to north. K and L both grew up in the vicinity of one of those few. K and L made the point with EJ as part of the educational component of this very joyful (though sometimes tiring) trip. The agenda changes for tomorrow though. The older girls are off to a "play day" while the adults tour. Evidently there is a building of interest just across the street from the hotel and that will be on the adult agenda.

They have taken many, many pictures but so far haven't been able to post them. If they can get them to us via email, we'll post them.