Siping

Hi Everyone,
It's been quite a day here in Changchun. We took a 2 hour bus ride to the Siping Orphanage. Jenny, our Holt rep here, talked with Joe yesterday to see if he wanted to go back to say good bye to his foster mother and friends. He said yes so off we went...with some trepidation. It turned out to be a great visit. He was able to show us off to his friends and show us around the place. They had about 6 tiny babies, about 10 toddlers, and about 10 older kids. There were four workers there when we visited. We had brought some gifts from home and Joe helped us hand them out. We also gave him pens to give to his friends. His foster mother was very sweet. She even called his foster father while we were there so he could say good bye again. All in all it was a highly emotional day but well worth it. I think in the long run it will be good for some closure for him. It was clearly ok with his foster mother that he go with us. He told her he would go to the best university in the States and then buy her a motorcycle.
He is such a good-natured kid. Almost always a smile, even when we have no clue what he is saying. Thank goodness for the crucial words I know in Chinese like bathroom, hungry, thirsty, let's go, good, come here...
We know the hard days will come. We're just hoping it isn't until we get back home. Everyone is getting ready to be home again. Eating out all the time gets old. We did get Pizza Hut tonight which was really good. Poor Maria will probably never eat Chinese again, even though everything we've had has been fantastic! (the Chinese food here, I mean)
Tomorrow we are going to a kite flying park. Not sure if we're supposed to bring a kite or watch the kites...
We will fly down to Guangzhou on Friday morning. Hopefully we can get some pics up from there.
Thanks to those who have left messages.
Wan an he zai jian (good night and good bye)