Xi'an - Day 3

It's late, and everyone is sound asleep, so this will have to be a short post. Today was another emotional day, but overall, we're all doing fine. We spent the first half of the day on our own, so we took a walk down the street to the big store our guide calls the "Chinese Walmart" and had fun exploring there. It's always so interesting to see things that are different from our culture. Of course, just getting there and back is quite the adventure because pedestrians DO NOT have the right of way. In fact, I'm not sure anybody does and it's a lot like playing Frogger - only it's for real!

Bathed, dressed and ready to start the day!

At 2:00, it was time to meet Amanda's driver in the lobby so he could take us to visit the Starfish Foster Home. Sophia came with him as an interpreter and although I was very glad to see her and so glad she could spend a little more time with little Sophia, it was a bit hard on all of us. Going to Starfish was amazing though - I think it was a truly eye-opening experience for Madeline. It was very hard/touching to see all those precious children there who don't have families of their own. Some of them have already been matched and are just waiting for their families to be able to come get them, as is the case with Nadia. She and little Sophia are best buddies and it was just precious to see them together! Sophia had been crying in the car on the way to Starfish, but when she saw Nadia, she practically lunged to give her a hug! It was so sweet. Nadia's family will be here in two weeks, so I'm very glad she won't have to stay there much longer now that Sophia is gone. Coming back to the hotel was an emotional ride as well, and that's where we said goodbye to big Sophia, who is truly an angel in our eyes. Had our guide, Tom, not already been in the lobby waiting for us to come back down to meet our little group, I'm quite certain the crying little Sophia and I did in the hotel room would have moved well past tears and into the ugly cry category. No time for that though, and I'm sure it was a good thing that we had distractions.

Seeing Nadia again for the first time. It was very obvious these two girls love each other a lot.

We walked around outside Starfish for a while and she and Nadia took turns riding in the stroller and pushing it around.

Another Starfish doll baby. Jacqueline, I tried to find a way to sneak this one out in my bag for you, but didn't get away with it. Is she adorable, or what?

We made it back downstairs, met up with our guide, Michelle, Mary and Marie Ling and headed for the Muslim Market. The weather was really nice and we walked all up and down the streets. We saw so many interesting things, did some bargaining, bought some cool things and ate way too many dumplings! (Brooks, believe it or not, Sophia only ate 1 1/2 of them!) I think it was the perfect distraction for Sophia to get out of the hotel room and go some place where there was so much to see. She eventually fell asleep and stayed that way the rest of the evening - even while I got her ready for bed. She is one sound sleeper!

Some of my favorite people in the world :-)

The Bell Tower in Xi'an and part of the city wall.

Roasted duck, anyone?

Yes, I know... precious beyond words.

Tom is an excellent guide - along with taking care of all our adoption procedures, he's doing a fantastic job of teaching us so much about the history here in Xi'an. For now, we're just waiting on her passport to be ready, but that won't be until Friday. So tomorrow we're heading to the Terracotta Warriors Museum, which we've really been looking forward to. Rodney and I keep saying how different this adoption trip is from any of our trips to Russia. We did do a bit of sight seeing there, but nothing like we're getting to do here. We almost feel guilty we're having such a nice trip so far. Almost... but not quite! :-)

So much for keeping it short, huh? Thanks for reading this and for all the comments, emails and messages we've been getting. We appreciate each of them so much!

Till next time,
Karee