One More Day In Province

Today we slept in a bit, ate a nice breakfast, then took a walk down the street to wear the kids out a bit so they'd take naps.  We headed down the street to The Home Depot although we never actually made it that far.  Instead we wandered into a neighboring shop that turned out to be a lot like the Lotus (which is a lot like a Walmart, a little bit of everything).  Since Joshua is old enough to understand a fair bit of Chinese we wanted to buy him some cartoons or kid shows that were in Chinese so he could keep up his language skills.  Not sure if that'll be effective or not but we felt like it was worth a try.  Anyway, we found some Dora the Explorer, Diego, and Thomas the Train movies in Chinese so we picked those up.  Also got some books for him and some small oranges (like a satsuma, only sweeter).

After a brief stop at KFC for a Pepsi we went back to the hotel and took naps.  At 2:00 we met our guide and went to the local zoo.  Winter is apparently their low season as they were working on many of the exhibits.  The way they display animals is different than we were used to.  Most notably, you can get a lot closer to most of the animals, sometimes close enough to touch.  They have two different lion exhibits and the males were roaring back and forth for a bit.  It was pretty impressive.  The lions at the Houston Zoo generally lay around and do nothing because it's too hot.  We all rode the carousel at the zoo too.  Joshua liked it at first but I think it was a bit much for him.  Lora loved it of course.  Toward the end we let the kids play on a playground they had there.  Joshua was pretty upset when we left.  I think he occasionally remembers his friends or nannies from the orphanage and gets sad all over again.  I'm sure he'll forget in time.

After the zoo we ran by the notary office again to pick up our notarized documents.  Got notarized copies of Joshua's abandonment papers and birth certificate.  Was kinda sad all over again reading the report of his abandonment.  It's hard for me to imagine abandoning your child.  I'm sure those of you that have children can relate.

After that we had our guide drop us at a local coffee shop/restaurant.  She helped us order a couple small pizzas, some spaghetti noodles and juice for the kids.  It took forever to get our food.  Didn't really want to sit there that long but we had a good time playing with Joshua while we waited.  Joshua forgot for a while that he doesn't like me and we had a good time.  :)

Came back to the hotel, got everybody pottied, teeth brushed, in their pajamas and in bed.

Tomorrow our guide will pick up Joshua's passport and we'll fly to Guangzhou (not sure of the spelling) where we'll have appointments at the American Consulate.  Our flight is in the evening so will likely be a later-than-normal night for us.