Real blog post to go with james' pictures

That was James, he can not type in the dark, don't know what's wrong with him!  Cora is sleeping, Sophie is watching a movie with headphones on, and I am adept at nighttime typing!

Yes we did visit the Lord Bao Temple - pretty cool!  It was a beautiful park, lots of bamboo and trees and a river for the kids to almost all fall in.  Our family and two others went.  The 4th family's little boy is a firecracker, and they struggle bringing him out with the group.  It reminds me that we all have our separate challenges with these kids, as they are all so different.  Another girl from Cora's orphanage is 6 1/2, and you'd swear she was raised by english speaking parents!  She is picking up so much english already, and just talks and talks and talks.  Mostly in Mandarin, but it is truly amazing how quickly these kids adapt.

We had a small scene at breakfast.  Mornings are really hard for Cora, we are learning.  She was teary again when she woke up, and is really disoriented and sad.  Today was not a rush, at least, as we didn't have to be at the bus till 9am.   We found some cartoons to put on, and just had a slow go of it.  Once we got to breakfast, again I think she was looking for her friend, Emily.  When she didn't see her, the tears started flowing.  A super nice waitress came over to help.  She took cora and I, and we walked around, picking out some food for her.  She calmed down, and we got her to eat 2 boiled eggs and some watermelon.  Oh, and another man stopped over before we left, to ask if we needed help.  His english was not great, but he said something to the effect of "it will get better - she will be fine".  So even though people stare ALOT, they do seem to try to be helpful.

Of course once we got with the group, Cora was all smiles.  It was hot hot hot at the temple, but the kids ran all over, and had a great time.

We came back to the hotel, to finalize all the paperwork for her passport.  Everything looked good, so we will get her passport tomorrow, obviously before we fly out to Guangzhou.  I think our flight is at 3:30.

We did a walk to McDonalds again, and then explored the mall a bit.  Found that on the 3rd floor there are TONS of restaurants.  That might have been nice to know 4 days ago!  I am not quite as impressed with the help we are getting here from our guide/translator lady.  I know her focus is getting our paperwork done, but still.  There are some simple things she could have pointed out to us that would have made this leg of the journey easier.  Anyway, we had fun checking everything out.

Came back for a nap, and then swam again in the afternoon.  Cora didn't want to actually go in today; she just wanted to play from the edge, which was fine.  James and I took turns playing with her, and horsing around with sophie, too.  Sophie had a bit of a meltdown herself, in the pool.  She has really been a trooper, and is SO good with Cora.  She's been very involved in the roller coaster of emotions, though, and it's taking a toll on her as well.  She just needed some attention, and was feeling lonely and homesick.  Made me think it was about time for my meltdown.  Ha,ha - not quite yet, I'm sure that will come.  But my back did go into spasms for some reason in the pool, so that was a real joy, and was not helping anything.  I couldn't move for about 10 mins, and I don't really know what that was about?  It's calmed down now, after some pills.  I do keep saying i wake up feeling like I've been run over by a bus - don't know if it's the beds, or just a combo of things.   Our next hotel looks like it has a big lap pool, so I'm hoping I can get some swim workouts in, and maybe that will help.  Or some yoga!

We had an awesome evening, just hanging out and playing in the room.  It seems like once we are settled into the room, where Cora is not on edge about seeing her "friends", or waking up disheveled, she can just relax and enjoy being with us.  We just did a ton of stuff, and she and sophie were giggling about everything.  She said a few more words, and is COMPLETELY warming up to James.  She pretty much thinks everything he does is hilarious.  We had our 3rd night in a row of spaghetti room service, and sophie read her a bedtime story.

She's already got all of us wrapped around her tiny little finger (ooh - which now have adorable pink painted nails, thanks to mama!).  My God, she is just the cutest thing in the world.

We are excited to go to Guangzhou tomorrow, and have 6 nights there.  Wow, that seems like a REALLY long time.  But hopefully it will go quick.  We'll be in the same hotel as our pals, Laura and Sean, who we met in Beijing.  But the rest of the people with us now are staying someone else.  The transition will be hard on Cora, I am sure.  Once again totally confusing.  I really hope Jane (guide) tries to explain to them what is going on.

Our medical appt is on Saturday, and then our consulate appointment on the 6th.  And we fly home on the 8th.

Okay, it will be a big day for me too, tomorrow.  Better get to bed!

Michelle