We started our day with a trip to Starbucks. The 3rd graders were having Donuts with Dad back home, so Claire and Micah decided they should have some "daddy time" at breakfast as well. We had Starbucks muffins and gazed out the window while we ate.
After breakfast, we piled into the van for a 1.5 hour car ride. Today we were visiting Ella's orphanage. It is in a town called Xuchang. Thankfully the air quality has improved up to "Unhealthy for Sensitive Groups" and the highway is open again.
We had a nice time at the orphanage meeting her nannies and playing with the kids. You can't help but get a feeling like you want to bring them all home and rescue them from institutionalized care. We took lots of pictures and hope to pay it forward by sharing them with other families waiting to go get their own kids. Especially memorable for the day was a little boy with Down's that Nathan fell in love with. He even asked me if he could print out a picture of the boy and keep it in his room so he could remember him!
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| Ella's Bed (middle right) |
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| Ella's Nanny |
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| Ella's Play Room |
We got back from the orphanage around 2PM. Our guide Danielle took us all out to lunch at a Chinese restaurant close to the hotel. Nathan and Claire ordered white rice and plain noodle soup. Hannah had "popping" rice (fried rice), Maelee and Deanna ate something called "pancakes" (fried thin bread) and Matt and Micah had some noodle dishes. We all got to eat our fill and it was nice going somewhere besides Pizza Hut and Burger King.
After lunch we decided to take the kids to the grocery store to get a few treats. The rule was everyone could pick two things. Have you ever gone to the grocery store to get a "few things" and ended up with a lot more? We ended up buying way more and filled the whole cart. Yikes! Favorite snack of the day was a 1L of Fanta soda that Nathan got all for himself.
After gorging on our snacks back at the hotel, Matt took the big kids to play ping-pong in the gym while Deanna started packing. For dinner, Deanna "cooked" Italian noodles in the hot water maker and warmed up sauce in a hot water bath in the sink. The kids thought it was delicious!
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| Maelee and Ella looking out the window together |
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| Home brew noodles and sauce |
Tomorrow we plan to travel to Guangzhou. We are looking forward to moving to the next phase of the process and slightly warmer weather. Please pray for clear weather and no flight delays. Please pray that we get Ella's passport tomorrow. We need that in order to get her visa next week. Also, please pray that we can get get all 6 suitcases packed back up in time to leave the hotel for the airport.
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