October 7-11, 2005

Friday

Today was a free day. We had planned to go to the zoo and back to the
museum. Well we made it to the zoo and a zoo is a zoo no matter where
you are. It was okay. When we got in the taxi to go to the museum
which should have been around the block A HUGE BLOCK TO FAR TO WALK
THOUGH. He started heading across the river in the opposite
direction. So we just stopped him and came back to the hotel. It was
the first time a taxi driver had tried to take the long way. So we
will go back to the museum on Sunday. That day I will pack and then
we will do the outing.

We have loved it here. Nice hotel, good food and good chinese food
close by. But after 14 days in Changsha I am ready to be home, see
blue skies and MOST OF ALL be with McKenna and have our family
together again. This extra week has been harder than I thought it
would be.

Tomorrow we will visit the Shaoyang SWI. IT will be a long tiring day
so we sent out the final load of laundry today. I may even pack
tonight. If in Changsha the hotel is great. The laundry at the
hotel is more expensive than sending it out but for ease they do a
good job and it doesn't smell smokey as when you send it out. It just
depends on how you want to do it.

Saturday
Today was the big day to the SWI. It was a beautiful day and
eight families went. We had a great time on the driving and saw some
beautiful scenery part of it reminded me of the High Unitas in Utah.
Beautiful rice growing on terrace hills and even a couple of cematary's
on hills with terracing.

The SWI is at the end of a narrow dirt road and the grounds were
beautifully done as well as the buildings. One building is for the
older folks although we did not tour it nor see anyone. One is for
the nannies and older girls. One looked like it was actually a
garage. there was a small pond and the babies building. We were able
to meet the nannies and we met Marielle's main nanny. We were able to
take a few pictures of the nannies. We saw were she slept and met her
nanny there. The walls are painted with cartoon characters and hanging up artwork created by the pictures.

Final Post From China

We woke up and went down to breakfast. I convinced Jason to
FINALLY go to the medical clinic and he is on two
antibiotics and cough medicine.

I then took Marielle and did some last minute shopping
and then she came home and NAPPED YEAH until around
130. She woke up, and we put her in her red, white
and blue baby gap outfit. We went down to the red
couch and took pictures with our group from HUNAN and
family pictures with the background of the waterfall.
The bridge is closed because of repainting so we could
not do the pictures there.

We then headed to the consulate and did the oath, I am
a bawl baby and cried through all 30 seconds of it.

I then headed out to do some LAST MINUTE SHOPPING with
the money I had left. I had not bought alot of silks
but saw how cute the girls looked in the photo today
so I purchased some silks in various sized for
Marielle. They looked cute. I also purchased a few
other outfits for her to wear and grow into.

All in all this has been a wonderful experience, it
has had its ups and downs but the ups FARTHER outweigh
the downs. It is such a beautiful country which
Marielle comes from and we will be proud to help her
celebrate as she grows up. We received a book with a
few more pictures in it and notes from her MAIN nanny.



We look forward to coming one more time to adopt
hopefully a little brother for the girls and then to
bring back the kids for a special family vacation.


Thanks for being apart of this adventure.



Love from China,

Jason, Natalie, Marielle and from the US Miss McKenna
Rene Anderson