Rain, Rain Go Away

Kaitlyn being a ham!

I'm too cute for words!!

Alyssa... I love my new clothes! Thanks!

We all piled onto the bus and were all set to go to the island to do a little shopping today, but due to the typhoon that hit Hong Kong, we are getting torrential rains and the island is flooded! It was standing in about three inches of water this morning... I'm sure even more by now! Everyone was bummed out and looked forward to spending a few hours wheelin' and dealing for some souvenirs. We are going to attempt it again tomorrow. Instead, our guides (Rosa & Maggie) took our group to a little musuem for about an hour. Two of our friends forgot their cameras, so I said no problem... I will just download my pics onto your laptop. I went to take my first picture and discovered I left my memory card in the computer from the night before!!! Ugh!! So, no pictures today, sorry. While we were at the musuem, we felt like we were part of it... we got a few photo-ops with some of the locals that seemed fascinated with our looks, especially when we stood next to our blonde friends! The man was trying to be sneaky and not obvious he was taking our picture, we all (9 of us) turned around on the count of 3 and smiled giving the piece sign and it just made his day!!

Kaitlyn's behavior was much better today. Thanks for all your prayers!!!! Keep them coming! Our guides sat her down and had a little chat with her about it. "She needs much training and boundries" they say. I have been concerned about her academically too. She is old enough to be in 5th grade, but struggles with her 2nd grade work. She didn't get hardly any stimulation, attention or an education at the orphanage and has a lot to catch up on. She has mastered counting to 10 in English, know the names of about 8 body parts, 4 colors, about 10 letters and several words now. For example, "be gentle", "I'm hungry", "Are you hungry?" "shoes", "bath", "bathroom", "please", "more", etc. It's coming. We've also picked up on a few key phrases in Mandarin as well.

We ate dinner again with our friends, the McBeath's, tonight at an Italian restaurant. We ran into two other families there as well. We're enjoying exploring all kinds of foods. Tomorrow night we have a group dinner planned at a local Chinese restaurant... something to do with "banana leaves". We have absolutely loved the food! Lorraine... it's not bad at all, I think you will really like it. You just have to be open to trying it! The guides have been very good with the group meals and helping us order things they think we'll like.

Tim seems to be getting his fair share of attention too. There's been a handful of Chinese people that come up to him and rub is "budda belly". The first time it happened it really caught Tim off guard!! It was hysterical! I guess big bellies on westerners is a sign of great wealth and happiness! Well, for us, the happiness part works! :) Oh, one more crazy thing we've learned. Coffee shops are not "coffee shops" - they're bars! Interesting.

McIntyre Family... I really liked your "priceless" comment! That's great! Miss you!

To all that have either emailed me or posted us a comment supporting us through Kaitlyn's challenges - thank you so, so much! I can't tell you how much that means to us!

We're almost home! I will let everyone know our flight information in a couple days. I know we get in on Sunday, the 28th around 4:40 pm. We'd love to see ya'll there at the airport!!!!!!!!! I'm so incredibly excited to see my family in Washington that are planning on coming to Portland to keep us company during our 6 hour lay over! It's been way too long since I've see you and I can't wait for you to meet your new grandaughter and niece!