China Update

Hi,

Well, it's been an interesting day since I last posted, so I thought I'd better update you. The last couple of days have been amazing. We have done and seen so much that it is hard to explain all that has happened. 

Starting with the most important: Claire.



She is the bravest soul I have ever met! She has faced this whole ordeal with such anticipation and excitement. And, even when things weren't going as well as we hoped, not once did she turn and run. We made a trip to her orphanage and she didn't want to go, but said that she would, to say goodbye, and then she was leaving. She is telling Chinese people that she is a foreigner from the USA. She dangled her toes in a swimming pool for a couple of minutes and then jumped in with all kinds of excitement. When we walked through security at the airport, she said goodbye to the only person in our group with whom she could completely communicate never looking back and with a huge smile on her face. 

It hasn't been all rainbows and angels singing, there has been A LOT of testing and acting out, but it is clear that she has been prepared to have a family, whatever that means, and there is no going back. I have shown pictures of her and said "I think she looks like she has spunk." I was so right and it is one of the things that I love about her. The last 2 days she has really been fun and our day ended tonight with playing games, snuggling and her taking pictures of she and I making funny faces. 

Now to our other adventures: Wednesday the 12th we had a free day so we decided to do some sightseeing. We were still in Jinan, the provincial capital of Shandong Province. Jinan is famous for their natural springs. We went to visit this area called Bau Tu Springs. It was beautiful! Lots of old Chinese architecture.



Beautiful springs



and people who treated Catherine like a rock star.



If I had $5.00 for every person who wanted to take her picture or have their picture(or child's picture) taken with her, I'd have had the whole trip paid for and then some! Later in the day we went to Dao Ming Lake. 

This is in the center of Jinan and was also a really beautiful walk.



We took a boat ride that reminded me of the River Walk in San Antonio. Here is where Catherine began teaching Claire the fine art of wrapping daddy around your finger. I think she already has mastered "The Look."



We headed to bed early as we had to be up to meet our guide at 5:15 a.m. to head to ZaoZhuang for Claire's Orphanage visit.