Hi all! Amy here...Chris is letting me post! Thus the longer wordier post : ) Today is our last day in Zhenghou. We said good bye to the capital of Ellie's home province by taking a stroll through the city park. The people here have been curious but very friendly. We get lots of intense stares but as soon as we smile and welcome them over for a look at Ellie they break out in smile and start chattering in Chinese. International Adoption is still very new in this province, only opening up in 2008. Our agency was the first to begin training the orphanages and promoting adoption. So the locals are still very curious about the process. One man at the museum yesterday who spoke pretty good English had many questions for us. He concluded by saying they had many children like Ellie in their province, and thanked us for taking care of her. We tried to explain to him that we were the ones who were blessed but he didn't seem to understand.
Each day we spend getting to know Ellie a little bit better. Her walking has improved just in the last two days. She will let go of our hands and walk a good few yards before falling down.She laughs, sings and occasionally pitches some pretty good fits : ) All in all a typical toddler. She likes to go and thinks anytime we change her clothes it must be time to leave the room.She still reaches out for Asian women and esp. our guide Yisha. The guides here say that the child will usually attach to only one parent while in china...they mystically refer to this parent as the "chosen one". When they asked us who the chosen one was, we told them Ellie has the "chosen many". Especially people who will hold her hand so she can walk around. We know once we are back home and settled we will eventually become the "chosen ones" and more importantly, Mom and Dad. Right now we are waiting on Ellie's passport and once we get that we will be able to fly to Guanzhou this afternoon where the US Consulate is located. This is the final leg of our journey!!! Tomorrow we will go to a clinic and have her physical in order to start processing her visa. We are glad to get to be able to see a doctor as she has broken out in a rash we would like to have them look at. We don't know if this is from a food allergy or what, but we have noticed that her fair skin is pretty sensitive. She has a mild case of eczema and after being out yesterday found that she sunburns really easily. Have we mentioned we are homesick? Please pray that this last week would go by quickly, and that we would also be found faithful to do all that He has called us to do while we are here. Thank you again for your faithful prayers, and to all who have sent emails...we love to get them as they ease our homesickness! BTW we cannot access our blog from here or see any comments you might post...a friend in Houston updates for us everyday.
