Free Day- Nov.12th

A rough night! Faith woke up crying, so she got to sleep with mommy, followed by Alissa'a awakening with a high fever.(102) Tuesday she woke up with cold symptoms and a sore throat. Loud music and someones computer kept us up all night, so we watched movies in our room all day and were just lazy. Dad took a long walk around the the island with the Newsome family and went to a food market where they saw the slaughtering of animals, the skinning process, and then saw them being hung.Then we all met at Lucy's for lunch. We rested a little and then headed back to the motel to see the night lights. We had dinner at Pizza Hut and it tasted just like home, but they didn't use enough sauce.

Zoo Safari- Nov. 11th

9:00 am and we aboard the bus for a 50 min. ride to an awesome Zoo Safari.First we took The Safari. We saw bears, lions, cheetahs, white tigers, elephants, giraffes, and ostriches wandering around in the wild. And the only thing separating us from the dangerous animals was a small wire and a nearby guard who was placed at each location to guard us if anything were to go wrong. Pretty scary, but cool. The remainder of the zoo was walked and was much like home, but much larger! No reptiles because they eat them.The best parts were seeing the pandas and watching Alissa feed a baby white tiger a bottle! Yes I said she fed a tiger!!! Their were 10 pandas very close up and personal. We watched them be fed and two were fighting over the food. We also saw a school girl almost get knocked to the ground as a giraffe pushed her with it's strong neck as she was feeding it. Our zoo would never allow you to get this close and personal with the animals. Elephants stood with mouths open waiting for you to throw them bananas. We also got to see the baby nursery where many cute babys were either in small pins or in little incubators. It was a pretty exciting day! Sense we didn't really snack to much at the zoo because of the food. We ate an early dinner at at an new Italian restaurant a couple of blocks away from the hotel. We had Cesar Salad, pizza, and spinach filled ravioli, which faith pretty much inhaled. Its amazing how much this little girl eats. I think it's because they didn't have much to eat at the orphanage. This was definitely the closest we've come to ''real food'' sense we've been here. We can't wait to go home!!!

Medical Exam and Visa- Nov.10th

After our typical Chinese breakfast on Congee (like cream of wheat), toast, fruit, bacon, rice, and noodles. The group of 6 families now, headed off for the girls medical exams. Everyone cried, but not Faith. She was extremely when Quin, her orphanage bed mate, was crying. She wanted to go in and comfort her. How Sweet!!

Next we were off for visa photos, again a breeze for us. Free time entailed visiting all the shops on the island. We walked allot to find the best deals. A Chinese blanket for Faith, Chinese dresses for the girls, and other gifts that were part of our list. In the afternoon, Faith and Alissa watched a movie while Richard and I did very meticulous paper work for Faith's visa. After she awoke from her nap, it was time for a group dinner and a local Chinese restaurant very close to our motel. The rice and noodles were excellent, but the rest was questionable, one in particular containing the foot of a black chicken, Yeah!!! It was 7:45 p.m. when we left and school was still in session as we heard the children learning the American alphabet. Their Schooling if from 8a.m.-8p.m. No wonder they are so smart!