almost 24 hours later

Did you know blogger is censored in China? Along with facebook, twitter, itunes, and who knows what else... Thankful to be an American. I am emailing this to blogger, and then it gets posted. We cannot see our blog from here, and not being on facebook is so disappointing to Tim. The friends that you see using facebook from China have gotten around the censorship by using a Private Virtual Network. Interesting huh?

Yesterday at the Civil Affairs Bureau went well. Lily was happy to see us and was smiles throughout the morning. We had sent a care package about a month ago with pictures of us, our extended family, and our home and pets. She kept opening the album and pointing to us in the pictures and then pointing to each of us in the room. I am very pleased that she recognized us so well - it's probably kind of easy since we are white, red-headed, bearded, etc. Not something you see everyday in China. Everyone says Tim looks strong.

There were 4 children being adopted yesterday at this CAB office. We will ride the train to Wenzhou today w/ one of those families. They have an unfair advantage in that they are Americans born to Chinese parents, so they speak Mandarin. This doesn't mean that they can understand their son, Toto, but probably, he can understand them. The people of Wenzhou speak their own Chinese dialect, but everyone in China understands Mandarin (so we are told).

Today we go to the CAB for more paperwork I think, and then to Wenzhou to see Lily's orphanage. I am told one parent will be allowed inside, and we will be shown a few rooms. This train ride is 4 hours, and then tomorrow we will return to our hotel here in Hangzhou. I am glad we will be travelling with this other family. They seemed nice, and it will be enjoyable to have some American conversation on the trip.

Yesterday, after getting back to the hotel, we braved the rain and walked to McD's. It was great to have something that really tasted like home. Lily ate fries and sipped on a coke. It will be interesting to see what she chooses on the buffet this morning which offers "western" and chinese. After lunch we got back here and literally crashed! We were in the beds from around 3 -6:00p.m. Then we made ourselves get up and ended up having a picnic on the floor in our room. Too tired to get out. Lily is probably thinking crazy Americans.

Lily absolutely loves her dolls that we brought. She has a baby and a bottle, and she is very motherly with her. We also pulled out her American girl doll that my mom gave her at Christmas. Tim pulled that out to get her to play with it and him. Which leads me to the major prayer request of the day. She is not accepting Tim right now. We both know this could take time, but it is frustrating. She jerks away from his touch, hides under the covers if he passes by, etc. We both know that eventually this will change, but we both will be praying sooner rather than later. We are grateful to have Carrie and Meg with us since they are able to help entertain. They were invaluable yesterday at the CAB office when we were busy doing paperwork, etc. (I forgot to mention that when we asked if she had been around men the director shook her head yes and told our translator the doctor.) I asked a page full of questions, and then our translator told Tim we shouldn't believe too many of the answers. - not that the director was lying, but that she probably didn't give the primary care, so she probably didn't know some of the answers and just told me what I wanted to hear.

Lily's hand coordination is much better than we suspected, but her walking is worse than we suspected. (Even after seeing videos of her walking.) We are a little concerned about our stairs. We are also very grateful that we brought the umbrella stroller from home. It is definitely going to be needed.

Thank you all for your prayers. I really cannot express to you how much we covet these right now! As of today, we have 12 days left, and we are all very ready to be home.

I should mention that skype is wonderful and amazing, and I'm so thankful to be able to see and hear Molly Kate and Annie.

Here are some pictures!