Orphanage Visit

Today is our first warm, rainy day. Bananas grow locally, so that should give you an idea of the climate around here! We are south of Florida! There is a large Audio/Video convention going on at our hotel. Brad thinks that may be what is the problem with the Internet – overload. Hopefully photos soon!!

We did get to see Micah's orphanage. Our guide went with us with our usual driver. Lots of people here know a little English. It's nice to have someone with you who knows a lot of it! The orphanage is a pleasant, bright one. They have 18 kids per household group with five caregivers. They also have university students and other volunteers who come in to spend time with the children. Several other children in the group are matched and going to be adopted soon. The children did seem very normal. We saw where the referral photos and the updates were taken. We are not sure why they needed guards around the building. But everyone was friendly and interacted very freely with the children. They let us take photos of whatever I wanted. Many orphanages have a lot restrictions. Our guide said the caregivers were very happy to meet us and know Micah is going to be cared for. It was hard not to cry looking around.

The city is beautiful with lots of trees and the highway running along the sea. It is known for it's gardens.

Had a few meltdowns from both Ben and Micah today. Ben is getting good at saying, “NO, Micah!” Steam comes out his ears from time to time when Micah bumps him or grabs a car. They continue to have good giggle moments together though.

It is wonderful to be on the other side of the Chinese required paperwork, doing the final processing with the American side next week before flying home Friday. Light at the end of the tunnel! I am sleeping pretty well by now. While our beds here are hard, they are not as bad as the ones in our Beijing hotel. We are grateful for everyone's prayers for this challenging process.