Naptime & Bathtime

Hi Everyone!

Today ( Thursday) we had a great day! We are getting a little more sleep now and I feel like we are understanding Joelle a bit more. Vicky took us to tour a University that has been around for 1000 years. It was beautiful and the weather was nicer today so we had a good time. It is still a little cold but at least it was not raining. It was sort of our first really good look at Changsha. Afterwards, we went to eat lunch as a group at a nice restaurant. They served us some typical Hunan dishes that were not too spicy( Hunan is known for it's spicy food). We had beef, what looked like little ribs, tofu, eggplant, noodles, peas and watermelon. The food was excellent. We went back to the hotel room afterwards and took a long, long nap. It feels like we are playing catch up in that area. After we woke up we spent some time in the play room and then went to a late dinner with another family in our group. We received all of our documents from Joelle's province except her Chinese passport. They will not have those ready in time for our flight tomorrow so someone will bring them down to Guangzhou for us.

Joelle's personality continues to be outgoing and energetic. She loves baths! She throws her face into the water and comes up laughing. She still tries to run away (so that we will chase her) but is learning there are consequences. Today she ran headlong into a plexiglass wall. She does not cry due to pain very much but she definitely cried this time. It was a good opportunity for Ma -ma ( as she calls me - sounds more italian than american) to comfort her. She is a great sleeper - for which we are very thankful! She talks a lot - too bad we don't understand her.She does not respond to her name - either in chinese or english, so we just started calling her Joelle.Mike and I decided she probably had the run of the orphanage as she pretty much does what she wants no matter what we say in chinese or english:) She is a joy despite the challenges and we can't wait to get her home and introduce her to you all. It is bittersweet because we are missing Zoe terribly. We talk to her every day by Skype but it does not replace holding and hugging her.