Hey!

We had a long ride here yesterday.  It was fascinating to see spring move into the country as we rode from north to south for 10 hours.  Different housing, different farming, etc.  Kenton loved it, but the rest of us had had enough after about 4 hours.  We probably have 500 blurry pictures as we flew along at speeds up to 306 km/hour.  We didn't realize that we should have brought food along and were quite hungry after riding for 10 hours.  A 3-year-old boy fell in love with Jamison and became our companion for 3 hours or so.  He shared his oreos and we shared play dough and electronic games.  He was a super cutie but I don't think Jamison was too sad to see him go.  Kenton roped a Chinese man into a game of Uno with himself and the boys.

We reached our hotel on Shamian Island (Victory West) around 10:30 and found that it didn't offer much in the way of privacy.  I was exhausted and frustrated and MAD!  All I could do was cry.  This morning we got it worked out and we are staying.  Our room has a balcony and that's kind of fun although the humidity is HIGH and so are the temps.  :)    My online friend is right down the hall with her husband and newly adopted daughter.  For my birthday she introduced me to starbucks which was fun.  :)  It makes me smile that my first visit there was in China.  :D  We also made friends with a couple from Chicago.  

    You know how little kids make instant friends at the park in seconds?  They don't know names but they're friends anyway.  That's a little like adoptive parents here in China.  It's a lot of fun to meet new people who share similar interests and experiences with adoption.  Truly amazing!

Baobao likes to watch tv and play electronic games.  He doesn't like to be out and about.  He can be a bit of a pest when he wants to go back to the room  ALL THE TIME.  It's a bit of a balancing act for us trying to recognize that he's been through a lot of change and needs a lot of understanding while not enthroning an emperor and setting him up for major disappointment when he gets dethroned at home.  Not to mention that the rest of us would go crazy spending 24 hours in a hotel room together.  

The island is beautiful and smells heavenly.  We look forward to being in a place that's a bit more familiar than Taiyuan was.   We'll be sitting for a few days without progress during the Tomb Sweeping holiday.  Tuesday we'll get started again.