Friday October 17 and Saturday October 18

We continue to be utterly amazed, awed and at times overwhelmed both by being the parents of 2, and the wonderful province of Sichuan and Chengdu.

Sorry for the late update. Yesterday was an exhausting day, and today we are packing alot. Tomorrow we leave on a 12:45 China Southern Airlines flight to Guangzhou. We are sticking close to the hotel today.

. First off, James is doing great. His personality is really coming out. He's outgoing, active and aggressive. He's also very attached to Joe. Though after a few minutes of Joe being gone, he's good with me. Yesterday he gave me kisses.

He's eating so much. SO MUCH that we have to slow him down and try to make sure he doesn't throw up. He will definitely need more surgeries but otherwise he can hold his own with eating and drinking.

So on Friday we went to a leather factory of a friend of our guide Lisa and bought 2 really nice coats for Joe and I. They will ship directly to US. Joseph played with a little boy and got a chance to run around the parking lot. They were all trying to figure out what size I am in!! Heheh..

Then Lisa took us to Wen Shu Monastary. It was so pretty. So nice. And we did a little shopping. Some things in Chengdu are pricey so I haven't bought a lot. I wonder what it will be like in Guangzhou. The exchange rate isn't as good.

At the Monastary, there were lots of elderly who were impressed with Joseph. We were able to burn incense, pray, and rub a symbol for luck. We had James Lie Lie rub the symbol. It was moving.

After all this we rested, then.......

We went to the Shu, the leather factory owner's apartment for Dinner. We ate at a real home of a Chinese person. It was such an honor. The dishes were great and I'll add them later. Her generosity was amazing and her cooking was fabuluous. We had seafood, beef, shrimp, bamboo shoots, potatoes, 1,000 year old egg, lotus root, fruit and some type of after dinner concoction. James wanted to eat everything and got pepper in his mouth adn SCREAMED!!!! Oh it was ugly at the table. But they were so nice. And he settled.

Joseph brought his own pizza which was really good for him. The host did not seem upset.

We gave her a small present. Her sister in law was there and is very pregnant so we bought a few things for her.

The sister in law is having her first birth. She asked me how things went with Joseph. SO then the whole conversation shifted to me trying to explain my birth experience in English to her sister in law through Lisa. And then the host adding her own experience. It was a universal moment. I think Joe and Joseph were a bit red.

And by the way, their doctors are recommending nursing now.

We are all looking forward to going to Guangzhou and being close to other adoptive families that may be around. We are also looking forward to seeing how Guangzhou is different from Chengdu. And then there's the sadness about leaving James home. For a long time. Very sad.

We are ok and love all of you and miss you and want to say

GO PHILLIES!