Sept. 22, YueXie park and museum

John and the kids at the ram statue ~ there must be Carolina fans in China!

Today was a very nice day. Weather wise it felt so much better. The humidity was a lot lower. We took advantage and spent a lot of time outside. Across from our hotel is a public park. One thing I can say about the Chinese; they know how to build and maintain a park. It is extraordinary. There are lakes, waterfalls, statues and many kinds of flowers and plants. Another thing there is a lot of is...people. We spent several hours in the park today. We saw people playing badminton, hackie sack, dancing, exercising, singing and playing instruments.
Today, I also had a taste of what it must feel like to be a celebrity.
Almost every person that walked by would either take a double take
or out and out stare at us.
A few would ask about our kids. John loved to tell them that we had 4 more at home, just to see the reaction. We met a man who attended Michigan State and knew about Chapel Hill.

The tall guy wearing the Michigan shirt went to Michigan state

He talked to us a long time. The lady with him asked if Abbey and Elijah were brother and sister. I didn't try to find out if she meant bio, I just said,"They are now." We got many thumbs up along with many totally confused looks.

John and his papoose

After a nap in which we all slept, we went to visit a museum down from our hotel. When they were excavating to build our hotel, they discovered the tomb of a king. You can actually see the tomb, along with the remains and the artifacts that were buried along with the king. It is dated to one hundred years before Christ. It was very interesting.

This is a picture of the suit the king was buried in. It is made entirely of jade plates sewn together.

Our new cutie patootie!

Tomorrow we have to stay in the room between 11 and 12, in case our advocate has any questions from the consulate. If there are none, the US will grant Elijah a visa to come home. There was a little concern about the wording on our home study and gov. approval. But today, our advocate said she thought we were ok. We are approved to adopt "healthy or special needs, including heart defect and missing digits". It has been said that the specific special need has to be listed. Susan says that the translation says,"healthy or special needs, for example heart defect and missing digits", so we should be fine. Regardless, if you get a chance, please pray that everything will be approved tomorrow.

4 more sleeps and then we are home!!!