August 24th

Lamentations 3:25

The Lord is good to those who wait for Him.

Sage slept great again all night long. We are amazed at that. It is just so unusual for us! She really is following her schedule that the orphanage gave us. She goes to bed around 7:30 wakes around 530ish for a bottle and sleeps a bit longer than that. Actually right now she is sleeping quite a bit. And before we pat ourselves on the back thinking we have a great sleeper, we will just wait and see. Because we have wondered if this is Sage's way of grieving. Not screaming, notthing w/ food, just shutting down and blocking it all out. You have to wonder what is in her little head. For 9 months she lives in a place, probably never really left the room, much less the orphanage. One day she wakes up, strangers take her on a bus, something she has never seen before for a 5 hour bus ride. Then she comes into a room full of these funny looking people speaking like she has never heard, and these strangers who took her from the orphanage, now had her over to 2 of them. People who are constantly in her face kissing on her, playing w/ her, singing to her. And not only are these strangers constantly hovering, they have taken her into a room that is cold, drug her to half a million new places on and off of buses, stuck new bottles in her mouth, change her clothes all the time then try to force her to wear these crazy things on her head. And we wonder why she might need to block it all out once in awhile!

Today was a long day. We met at 9am and headed out to a kindergarten. It was really amazing and so sad all wrapped up in one. It is a boarding school for kindergartners. Parents drop them off on Monday and pick them back up on Friday. While we can not fathom doing this to our children, I suppose it is better than leaving them on the side of the road as babies. The children were darling! It was a huge school and we were able to observe in many different classrooms. There were by far more boys than girls overall of course. some of the classes a little better balanced than others. The teacher student ratio was very impressive, and the teachers were such a sweet bunch. It was quite a site these cute young teachers were dressed in summer dresses and heels bouncing around, we were there pouring sweat as we watched the kids. The heat today was alot worse, very humid. But I guess for them it is just the way it is. We were able to sit and watch a group of little girls perform a dance and it was just the cutest thing ever! The babies seemed to really enjoy watching all the action. They are just not phased by the noise at all. Good thing for Sage since our house is loud at all times.

After that tour, we went to the Hunan Provinical Museum. And while I am not a huge fan of museums, especially of history, this one was rather interesting. I guess it is a very famous museum and we saw the buried tombs of a ruling family from the Han dynasty which ruled over 2000 years ago. What was interesting was that they have the body of a woman that was buried inside along w/ the insides of her body. Yep, kind of gross, but you should have seen how great she looked for that old! Sage was a trooper through the day. She is just so good!

After our tours Sabrina and Vicky our guides took us to a local Hunan restaurant. We requested non spicy food! I enjoy the chinese meals because it is always served family style so you can try a variety. Our group got a good laugh over the items on the menu, they just eat anything here! The favorite, which I declined trying was a** meat. Mark did eat it and says it was good, I will take his word for it! Our mature group of travelers that we are just got a good kick over that one. Along w/ the monkey brain fungus. I just don't get it! I stuck to the sweet and sour pork and rice! We enjoyed dining w/ our guides and just talking to them about their culture. No, they have never heard of crab rangoon! They also think it is weird that we put soy sauce on our food. They only use it to cook with. They think it would be too salty.

We dined in the hotel buffet for dinner. Dinner is a treat as Sage is not able to sit up in a high chair. I am back to those days of eating my food cold while we take turns passing a baby! She is starting to eat better and more food. She enjoyed the baby food today we fed her of carrots and applesauce. She will eat a few fruit puffs or cheerios, but still prefers her bottles overall. After dinner a few of us took the babies up to the play room. I got a few cute pictures of the babies together. I did ask our guide if they could find out who Sage would have shared a room w/ and they said they would call the orphanage and find out. I am anxious to hear. They told us it was 4 babies to a room. We all wonder if they were together, if they recognize each other at all.

Tomorrow we are pretty well free all day. We will start packing up and finish up paperwork. Our flight leaves for Guangzhou on Saturday at 11. We are anxious to get to the Famous White Swan Hotel and meet up w/ the rest of our CHI group. And of course we are all anxious to shop!

If you have been here to Hunan, and can recomend anywhere for us to go tomorrrow on our free day, please let us know. Eating, shopping, etc..

Please continue to pray for Sage with this rattle and cough she has still going on. She has an on and off runny nose, and the cough is the same way. She is still happy, but I am worried w/ her going on the plane if it will bother her.