Life with Three Girls Three and Under Isn't Easy

Our Airport Homecoming

Our first family hugs!

Livi and Isla were so excited to meet Hadley

Livi wanted to hold Hadley. Hadley did not like that very much.

Sweet Isla. These two are seven months apart and I think they are going to be very close friends.

My favorite picture from the day!

More hugs from Isla.

We have been home for nine days now and we have been busy. I have always said I was busy in the past before we had Hadley, but I didn't realize there is a whole other level of busy. Somehow having one more small human in our house has drastically increased the amount of laundry, dishes, food consumed and overall time it takes to get anywhere. I feel like I have four extra kids to get dressed and get out the door. It takes a long time to get three girls, ages 3 1/2, 2 and 1 1/2, fed, dressed and out the door. It doesn't help that it is freezing and won't stop snowing outside so we have to get boots, hats, and heavy coats on everyone. We haven't really even had to be any where on time because school was canceled all week and Aaron was off of work. It is going to be really hard when I am home alone and both big girls have school. Don't expect to see us anywhere on time for the next several months (possibly years). I apologize now for our tardiness and general appearance. I cannot promise clothes will always match or hair will be brushed (both mine and all the girls). We have been settling in well and staying cooped up at home to avoid the frigid temperatures. Hadley has been a few places including Target, Chic-Fil-A, the toy store, the doctors office and the children's hospital (for lab work, we will get to that story later). Otherwise we have been home and she is doing great. She is adjusting well to our schedule, seems to be attaching to both Aaron and I and generally enjoys her older sisters. They get in her face a lot and she is easily annoyed and overwhelmed with them but otherwise she likes them. They love her and do not seem to have a lot of jealousy towards her which was an obvious concern of mine. The first question out of Olivia and Isla's mouths when they wake up is "Where's Hadley?" They like to keep track of her every move and our very interested in everything she does. Hadley's personality is coming out more everyday and we are beginning to see more and more progress from her. She loves crawling around the house and is getting very fast. She pulls up on anything and everything that stands still and is taking some steps with the walking push toy and while holding onto our fingers. I think she will be walking before we know it. She continues to be an excellent eater and has enjoyed everything we have offered including chicken chili, quesadillas, meatloaf, prunes, green beans, Chic-Fil-A, chicken pot pie, bbq chicken and coleslaw. Her favorites so far seem to be eggs and mashed potatoes, although she has literally cleaned her plate at every meal. Yesterday she even licked her plate clean! You would think we are starving her, but I promise we are not. We have found one food she will not eat, pickles. She does not like pickles. I don't either, so I can't blame her.

We had one warm day before all the cold and snow hit last week. Hadley loved being outside. She will fit in well with us because we spend the majority of our spring, summer and fall playing outside.

She was very interested in touching and crawling on the concrete

She loved the rocking chair and watching our cat walking around

I am so excited we can finally fill all three wagon cars!

Hadley likes Chic Fil A as much as the rest of us

Playing with water. She is still very nervous in the tub and with water in general so we are making an effort to get our hands wet every chance we get. (Yes, I realize those tiny bears she is playing with our a choking hazard and I supervised closely). She is tolerating the bath if Aaron gets all the way in with her. 

Biggest sister Olivia always wants to hold Hadley. Hadley is not up for the idea.

We had our first doctor's appointment with out pediatrician a few days ago and it went great. He had nothing but good things to say and thinks that she looks healthy and seems to be on track. She is weighing in at 20 lbs and is in the 7th % for her weight, 10% for head size and 3% for height. That is all on the American growth chart so that is a decent size given that she will likely be smaller being that she is Chinese. She received two shots to catch her up to where she needed to be for her age by US standards. We are waiting on blood work to confirm the immunization record that we got for her from China. Assuming she had everything they said she had, we are caught up. She had a TB skin test that came back all clear. We had blood work done Friday as well as a stool sample, so we are waiting on confirmation that all that looks good.

Our pediatrician sent us to the local children's hospital, Kosair Brownsboro Children's Hospital (if you are in Louisville and haven't been you must go if you ever have to take your kids to the hospital. We have been once before when our oldest fell down the stairs and busted her eye lid open as a toddler and it is amazing. It is the most kid friendly place I have ever been and if it weren't for the circumstances of the visit, it is a very enjoyable experience. I will never go to another hospital, even though it is a little further away, it is worth the extra few minutes drive). Anyway, I couldn't figure out why they didn't just take the blood at the doctor's office. Now I know why! Our poor 20 lbs. girl had to have 8 vials of blood drawn. they said that is the max amount for her weight. I hopped on the hospital bed with her in my lap. They have a Child Life Specialist come in with an iPad with kid's games and music to try to distract them during the procedure. This worked for the first 20 seconds before they ever touched her. One nurse started with her left arm, tied the rubber band thing around it and the screaming began! They hadn't even stuck her yet. She was so angry at being held down by me while they tied that band around her arm. I could tell this wasn't go to go well. I held her down on my lap, while another nurse held her arm and the third nurse stuck her arm and tried to get some blood. I guess she couldn't find a vein. I didn't watch for fear of passing out. Well, that nurse left after her failed attempt and lots of loud screaming from Hadley. A man came in and explained that he was going to try. He grabbed the right arm, as another nurse held her arm and I held her body down. The screaming continued for the next ten minutes or so while they managed to squeeze 8 vials of blood out of an IV they stuck in the back of her hand. She was flailing the entire time and pulling her hand and arm away from them so blood was going everywhere. I was not watching the whole process, but saw the aftermath once we were done. There is blood all over the bed, the floor, the nurse and doctor, and Hadley and myself. The doctor doing it said he had only seen this happen one other time and that was in Iraq. It did look like a war had occurred in that exam room. The doctor and nurses were surprised that Hadley was as strong as she was and they said they liked her spunk! That's my girl! She is still worn out and sleeping a lot even several days later.

She was so happy while we were waiting to go back to the exam room. She clearly did have a clue what was about to take place.

Sunday we attended church for the first time as a family of five. We did not even attempt to sit in the sanctuary with our noisy little friend and instead sat in the atrium and watched on TV. Hadley charmed people all around us and made a lot of friends as she seems to do everywhere we go.

On the way to church. Aaron thought she looked like an Eskimo in her white coat

Hadley looking preppy at church on Sunday

Sunday was also our sweet Isla Kate's 2nd Birthday. We celebrated with a small family party with cake and ice cream. The girls all had fun and our family enjoyed seeing Hadley. She did great with the small crowd and charmed everyone as usual. I love a big, elaborate birthday party and look forward to this summer when Hadley is more comfortable and ready to party for Olivia's 4th birthday and Hadley's 2nd!

Martha Stewart Raspberry Cream birthday cake. Her's was much prettier but mine was very tasty!

Happy 2nd Birthday Isla Kate!

Today was the first day Aaron returned to work and I was left to get everyone up, dressed, fed and out the door on time. We did it and were even a couple minutes early! GO Mommy! I am sure it will be the last time we are early for a while. We just got lucky I think. The little girls and I went to the mall in search of curtains for Olivia's new room (didn't find what we were looking for) and outfits to have family pictures. I am so excited to get a good picture of all five of us as well as some professional shots of Hadley. I have always loved having professional pictures taken of the girls as babies and am sad we didn't get to do that for Hadley. We will have to make up for lost time and take a lot of pictures taken in the next few months. We got our first few comments while we were out at the mall this morning. One older woman stopped me to tell me how beautiful my children were. Thank you lady! Another woman asked how far apart the girls were and I told her they were seven months apart. She looked confused and said "So they aren't yours?" I explained one was adopted. Did she not notice she is also Chinese. I look forward to people's funny comments like this and welcome the opportunity to talk about adoption. I am sure I will feel differently in a few months after I am getting it all the time. I am sure I will be more annoyed then but for now I think it is amusing to watch people try to figure it all out.

Hadley playing on the mall playground. I was surprised she crawled that far from me. She turned and crawled quickly back after I took this picture. 

I hope to be able to blog more regularly but these little ladies are keeping me busy! I think we will get into a better routine this week with Olivia (3 days/week) and Isla (1 day/week)  being back in school (assuming they don't cancel due to the extreme cold. That is definitely a possibility these next couple of days).

Our Hong Kong Adventure

We got to Hong Kong by van around 7:30pm on Wednesday night. We grabbed a quick dinner at McDonalds (our new favorite restaurant) and took it back to our room at the airport hotel. We decided to call United to confirm that our reservation had a bassinet for Hadley to sleep in on our long flight to Chicago. They told Aaron that our flight was canceled due to mechanical error and they rebooked us for Saturday. We were supposed to leave Thursday morning. We finally got through to a person on the phone and Aaron got a few different flight schedules. They were trying to finalize an itinerary and he got disconnect. You may remember this exact same situation happen two weeks earlier. United canceled our flights, didn't notify us, and rebooked us for several days later and when we called we waited on hold forever and then got disconnected. I hate United! He immediately called back and got a new person who was very rude and unhelpful. We decided it would be best to walk down to the airport ticket counter. It was about 9pm at this point and poor Hadley had had enough. She fell asleep in the carrier almost immediately. The ladies at the ticket counter were friendly and helpful and told us there was a flight that left around 11:15pm (less than 2 hours at this point). They said they would be closing the counter in about 20 minutes and we still have to go get our luggage and check out of the hotel that we just checked into and get back there to check in in the next 20 minutes. Aaron stayed to finalize the tickets. I ran to the hotel with Hadley strapped to my chest fast asleep. I hiked back to the hotel and up the elevator.  I called for the bellman to come pick up our bags (We had four rolling suitcases, a backpack and an umbrella stroller). There was no way I would be able to get all of that while lugging Hadley. I threw our last minute items in our carryon and headed out to find Aaron. (Side note: I made Hadley a bottle and than lost it in the room somewhere. I figured i accidentally packed it in one of bags that the bellboy had I would find it once we got home. It is lost. I must have stuck in a really obvious spot. I looked all over our room as quickly as I could but I had limited time to get back and had another one I could make on the plane). I ran by the front desk to checkout. I asked for a refund since we were only there about an hour but they wouldn't give me one. I am going to be calling back to take that up with them again.

I grabbed our luggage which had been loaded onto one of the airport luggage carts and took off to find Aaron. I bumped into him and he told me the schedule. We would leave Hong Kong and fly four hours to Guam. We would go through customs and immigration there and then fly another 7 hours to Honolulu after going through customs again there we had to get our bags and recheck them. From Honolulu we would fly another 7 hours to Houston. Our final flight of an hour and 45 minutes finally got us to Louisville at noon on Thursday. This sounded like the worst possible flight schedule but it did get us to Louisville six hours earlier than our original flight with only one stop in Chicago. When I put two and two together and realized we were going through immigration in Guam I was terrified they wouldn't let Hadley in. We were told we could not fly to the US through Canada with a newly adopted child so I was very worried about what may happen when we got to Guam. Well, Guam's immigration was a joke and I can safely say they do not process a lot of adoptions. The guy didn't really seem to know what he was doing and I am praying we get Hadley's citizenship papers as we are supposed to in the next few months. Well, they let us all in without any problems. We had short layer on each of our stops. Enough time to grab snack and drink. The airplane food was awful and we could hardly choke it down.

We enjoyed a Hawaiian pizza on our quick stop in Honolulu that we picked up at California Pizza Kitchen. A lot of the Honolulu airport is outdoors so it was very hot. In the 80s. We joked that if we got stuck in Hawaii that wouldn't be so bad. 

I was not fully convinced about being totally cleared with immigration for Hadley until we got to Houston. I knew once we were on the main land we were in the clear. Only one more quick flight at that point until we were home. Hadley did great on all our flights. The first and last flights she slept the majority of the time on our laps. She did not have a seat on the two shorter flights. On the longer two flights we were luck enough to have an extra seat next to us and we were in the bulkhead row so we had some extra foot room (and a bonus place for Hadley to get down and play. She did good on the two longer flights. She got a little fussy for a few minutes towards the end of the long flight when she was exhausted and had had enough of plane and airports. I wanted to cry at that point too.

Headphones on the plane kept Hadley entertained for a few minutes

Total travel time: Left hotel in Guangzhou at 4:45pm on Wednesday (3:45 am in Louisville) and landed in Louisville at noon on Thursday That is about 34 hours travel time including the drive to Hong Kong with all of the change in time zones. I think we had Wednesday late night/Thursday early morning twice if that is possible. I am still not sure what time we were anywhere. It is all a blur now. Total time in the air was about 20 hours. It ended up being more time in the air than our original flight to Chicago but we made it earlier in the day then we had planned so that was a wonderful bonus.

We were thrilled to get home to see our girls and introduce them to their little sister. They were both so excited to meet Hadley and can't get enough of her. They were excited to see us too. Our two year old kept taking roll naming all of the family members to make sure we were all there. Poor sweet girl went to bed tonight worried we would be gone in the morning. I assured her we would be here and are not going anywhere for a very long time.

Hadley is settling into our family well. She was going on little sleep so it is hard to say if she was upset and clingy because she was so tired and off schedule or if she was just nervous about all the transitions and new surroundings. Probably a little of both. We look forward to seeing her come out of her shell once she is comfortable in our home and with her sisters.

Please ignore any typos. I was literally nodding off while typing. This jet lag is going to be a killer these next few days. Taking some melatonin and then off to bed.

Goodnight from LOUISVILLE, KY USA!!!

Final Days in Guangzhou

On Tuesday night we joined our group and headed out on the Pearl River cruise. It is a dinner cruise along downtown Guangzhou. They have colorful lights on the buildings and bridges so it was very pretty. We had a buffet dinner which was not very good. I figured I could at least eat a roll and when I bit into it it was filled with some weird brown goo. We couldn't decide what it was but Hadley liked it. Anytime I got something that weirded me out Hadley would eat it. She likes everything we have given her, except yogurt. That is the only thing she tried and clearly disliked. After dinner we went on the top outside deck of the boat and enjoyed the lights. If was breezy and cold outside so we didn't last long.

Apparently this building in one of the tallest buildings in the world.

When we got back inside, the after dinner entertainment began. I was glad we didn't miss it. It was a sight to see. There was a woman dressed as a clown (I think that is the look she was going for). She juggled oranges, knives, a soccer ball, and made balloon animals for the kids. The grand finale of her act was when she spun a soccer ball on her finger and then went around the room putting it on the audience's finger as it was spinning, all while Livin' La Vida Loca blasted from the sound system. She tried to hand it to Hadley and obviously that poor baby was weirded out and refused to touch it. She put it on my finger and although I was equally weirded out by her I participated and held the spinning ball on my pointer finger. Someone got a picture so I will be sure to get that and post it here at some point.

This lady was so strange. We didn't know what to thing about the show. It was very odd, but funny.

Wednesday morning we headed to Shamian Island to do some shopping. It is a manmade island build by the British in the 1800s. It was very quiet and quaint and you forgot you were in China when you were there.

Starbucks on the Island

 There are different shops that cater to the tourist and sell silk dresses, squeaky shoes, chops, jade, etc. You get to haggle for a lower price with the different shop owners. I have discovered that they respond much better when a man does this. Aaron didn't like the lowest price they offered and walked out and the shop owner chased him down the street and gave in to Aaron's price. When I tried this technique they gave me a sob story about how bad their business was and how they really couldn't go any lower on the price. I am such a sucker and bought the items anyway. We stocked up on silk dresses in a variety of sizes for the girls to wear for years to come. We also got a few gifts and knick knacks that we had been eyeing all week. The prices on the island were definitely cheaper than elsewhere for the same exact items. We finished off our morning shopping with a quick lunch at Lucy's. There is a statue on the island that adoptive families photograph their child on. We tried to pose Hadley, but didn't have much success.


We headed back to the hotel and finished packing. We were getting picked up at 4pm to catch a van to Hong Kong where we would spend the night before catching our morning flight home through Chicago.

We met our guide in the hotel lobby a little after 4 and picked up Hadley's visa. We received our special sealed envelop to give to US immigration when we got to the US. At this point we were free to leave.

Moms and babies in our group. All four baby girls are 15-16 months old. 

Our guide Aron. She was wonderful!

We had a 3 hour van ride to Hong Kong. The driver drove like a madman bobbing and weaving into traffic or driving in the emergency lane to pass cars and then cutting them off. It is totally acceptable to cut people off, drive within inches behind or next to someone else's car and honk constantly. We had to pass through immigration when we left China and entered Hong Kong. We had our passports and some paperwork that we gave to our driver. Our van pulled up to the guard booth and the side doors and rear tailgate door flew open and bright lights were blinding us. The man in the guard booth check our passports, carefully making sure who was who and that we were the people on the passport. I had to hold Hadley up so he could get a closer look just to be sure. He nodded and we continued on to the next set of guard booths. Again they were checking our passports and making sure we were all legit. While the man in the guard booth was carefully examining our paperwork and passports a woman came up to my side of the van and pointed something at our drivers head and pulled the trigger! Well, fortunately it was not a real gun but a thermometer scanner gun. From about three feet away she was able to scan our driver. Next she aimed for Hadley's head, then me, and finally Aaron. Aaron mentioned after the fact that he was very relieved she aimed for the driver first and not Hadley or I, since he had bot idaeApparently, if you have a fever then may not let you in. Note to other's traveling. Give your children Advil early in the van ride so it has time to kick in before you get scanned. I had heard about having your temperature checked but figured it was at the airport. I am so relieved none of us had a fever.  

We were dropped off at the hotel that was connected to the airport. We got checked in and headed down to find dinner. It was already almost 8pm by this time and Hadley was hungry and tired, as were Aaron and I. Everything in the hotel was ridiculously expensive so we decided to walk into the airport and try to find something more affordable. I am sure you all can guess what we ate....McDonalds, again. We headed back to the room, ate dinner and decided to call and check on our flight to confirm we had reserved a bassinet for Hadley to use on the plane.

This is when the story starts to go downhill....continued in the next post.

Consulate Appointment Day

We headed out early this morning to our appointment at the US Consulate. Hadley was dressed and ready for her big day.

We flashed our passports to the guard at the front gate and he checked our name off of a list and we headed in. There were a lot of Chinese people lined up outside waiting to go in. I assume they were trying to get a visa to go to the US. That is just an assumption if anyone knows please correct me if I am wrong. Our guide took our picture out front and we had to leave our cell phone with her.

In front of the US Consulate in Guangzhou

You are not allowed to take phones, cameras, bags, purses, or even watches inside the consulate. We headed in with our passports, paperwork in a clear folder and our gallon sized ziploc full of diapers and wipes. That is all we were permitted to bring in. We headed to the second floor and were instructed to go to a specific window and get a number. Our guide waited outside. They only permitted people in who were absolutely necessary...parents and adopted kids. We had a grandmother in our group and they would not let her come in. We took a number and sat down and played for a few minutes in the small play area they have set up in the adoption area. An American man gathered us all together (there were probably 10-15 families there) and we raised our right hand and swore all the paperwork we submitted and verbal information we shared about the adoption was true and accurate. Then they called each family's number and we went up to the window one by one. Aaron went so I am not exactly sure what they did. They took all of the paperwork our guide helped us gather earlier in the week and they will issue Hadley's visa and our guide will pick it up tomorrow afternoon. Aaron was fingerprinted on the digital fingerprint scanner and I overheard him swear to be telling the truth about everything and we were done. The whole process took about 30 minutes or so.

We got back to the hotel, fed Hadley a quick lunch (her new favorite food is cheese) and headed out to find lunch and some Chinese New Year decorations for our wonderful social worker, Sarah. We walked a little of the beaten path and ended up in a small, quaint little area of the city with adorable little shops. There was a shoe store that had great shoes. I tried on two different pairs that were so cute but neither fit. I am so disappointed. One pair was $5 and the other was $20. I would have loved to have taken home a couple pair of cheap shoes. We also found several baby and children's boutiques and bought a couple of cute things for the girls. Things were so affordable. I was shocked that the cute, boutique stores had such affordable stuff. I wish we had those prices in the US.

Our shopping outing on the streets of GZ

We wandered into Trust-Mart (just like a Walmart but even more stuff and more unorganized). We found a lot of Chinese New Year decorations to bring home. Two women in the checkout lane were pointing at our baskets, then looking at us and then laughing. We have about 20 different CNY decorations and a pack of 12 sets of chop sticks. They were amused that two Americans were purchasing all this stuff. Our suitcase is stuffed full of red and gold CNY stuff and I could hardly zip it. Then Aaron opened our backpack and found another stash of more CNY decor. I may have gone overboard but you know what they say..."When in China....buy everything you want because you won't be able to find it at home for that price." No one actually says that but it has been our philosophy this trip.

We are going on a dinner cruise tonight on the Pearl River with the rest of the families in our group. I am looking forward to it. You can see all of the buildings in the city lit up from the river. I will be sure to share some photos later.

Tomorrow morning we head to Shimian Island to do some shopping and have lunch. I have been told the island looks a lot like Savannah, Georgia with similar architecture and landscaping. It will be a lovely break from the hustle and bustle of the city. There are shops that sell silk dresses and squeaky shoes so I am going to have to buy another suitcase to get back all the dresses and shoes I hope to purchase for the girls. We get Hadley's visa tomorrow afternoon and head to Hong Kong where we will spend the night before flying home Thursday morning.

I finally remembered to share pictures of our room for anyone who is interested.

Our bedroom with Hadley's crib

The bathroom has a window into the bedroom. There is a privacy curtain on that window that can be lowered. The bathtub and shower are in the same area (you have to enter the tub by standing in the shower if that makes sense. It made tub laundry very conveinent because I could splash and drip all over the floor and it went down the shower drain.

Sink area in bathroom. That back wall is a tile mosaic.

Double glass doors. The closer one goes to the shower the further goes to the toilet.

Our living room/sitting area

Living room from the opposite end

Guangzhou Zoo

Today we enjoyed a cool and breezy morning at the Guangzhou Zoo. Most days here have been in the sixties, but today felt more like low 50s and breezy. We bundled up the babies and loaded them in the Ergo carriers and headed out to explore the zoo. The first animals we saw were the monkeys. There were many different varieties of monkeys, many of which I had never seen or heard of. We all enjoyed watching the monkeys for quite a while. There were some little ones that were very fast and were running laps, swinging and jumping around their cage. 

One of the many variety of monkeys we saw today

The majority of the exhibits were adequately kept and were similar to what you would see in the US. There were a few exhibits that were older and in need of an upgrade. There were a few new exhibits under construction so hopefully they were for the animals that were in the old, outdated exhibits. The bears were one of the animals in need of an upgrade. Their exhibit was open around the top and nothing was stoping a kid from easily climbing the low railing and falling in. It made me nervous to stand too close with the babies. The lions were also in need of a new home. They were in small, round concrete cages and were pacing back and forth. It was sad to see. The bars of their cages didn't look especially secure either. I think they could have made an escape if they tried hard enough.

We were shocked by how close we could get to some of the deadly animals and how not well confined many of them were. The eight or ten lions were pacing in their cages and looked like they wanted to eat us for lunch. They were skinny, hungry lions. We moved along quickly. 

There are a lot of signs everywhere in China that were clearly not translated correctly. There are often misspellings or words left out that change the complete meaning of the sign. We always get a kick out of these signs. Although spelled correctly, we enjoyed the following sign that marked a deck overlooking a garden. 

This one marked the way to the "Best Managed Scenic Spot." As much as we all laughed at the sign, this area made for a beautiful picture (see below)

It turns out they were not lying. It was the best managed scenic spot! We later saw a sign for an "Excellently managed scenic spot." It was nice but not nearly as nice as the "best managed" area. 

They had a beautiful, huge Asian elephant with long tusks. I have never seen an elephant with tusks before. It was quite a sight!

Unfortunately, we traveled all the way to China and looked forward to seeing the panda bears. Wouldn't you know that there were only two and they were inside their exhibit sleeping so we could barely see them.  The two animals that we did get to see that were displayed on our map were the wild ass and the lesser panda. Wouldn't you know the wild ass exhibit did not have a sign on it. We were hoping to photograph the dads standing in front of the wild ass sign. We all joked that since we didn't get to see the pandas we would have to settle for seeing the lesser pandas. That is really their name. They look like a mix between a raccoon and a little red fox. Not at all like a panda. Not sure where hte name came from. We headed to their exhibit and it was empty. Oh the disappointment we all felt! We were standing there sulking and out of the corner of my eye I caught a glimpse of something. I looked 30 feet up in the trees and there were the lesser pandas!! There were about 4-5 of them up in the trees hiding out. 

We were all also amused to see the raccoon exhibit. We joked that we see those laying on the side of the road all the time. The raccoons by far had the nicest exhibit in the zoo. I couldn't figure it out. However, they did not seem well contained. They could have easily climbed/jumped out. Then we saw the raccoons. They were the fattest, slowest raccoon you have ever seen! Aaron decided they kept them fat to keep them in their cage. These poor things could hardly walk up a sloped log and climb into a tree. 

Thank goodness Aaron got a video to share with you all!

We were very disappointed that the animals doing tricks were not performing today. That would have been truly amazing to see!

One thing that I did notice about this zoo that I found strange and disturbing was the number of animals that would be in one average-sized exhibit. For example there were 16 zebras (our zoo has like 5-6). There were about 13 full-sized crocodiles in one small indoor area. Below you will see this small area about 3 by 5 feet with a ton of lizards. They lizards and snakes were piled on top of each other. It was disgusting to see so many all piled up.

Big pile of lizards

We were running low on time and had to head back to the front gate to meet our guide. We swung past one last exhibit. The baby bunnies. They had a beautiful exhibit with a stream and a pond and a beautiful pink flowering tree. Then we noticed two large cages inside the bunny exhibit. Inside each of these cages were three giant PYTHONS wrapped up and snuggled up under blanket. This was not the bunny exhibit. Those baby bunnies were dinner! I am glad the pythons were still sleeping in the warm house covered in blankets and it was not feeding time! We all laughed and wondered how you got stuck with the job of covering up the pythons and tucking them in. They were well covered with these blankets. A person had to have covered them. (Sidenote: the zoo keepers working in the animal cages feeding and scooping poop were wearing business suits. They were well-dressed zoo keepers).  

Baby bunny exhibit....Oh wait, that is not the baby bunny exhibit. That is lunch for the three giant pythons! I am glad we left before it was feeding time.

We had a great morning at the zoo and had a lot of laughs. Our group is wonderful and we all get along well and enjoy each other's company. We eat almost every meal together and are having a lot of fun. Today after lunch the dads and babies went back to the hotel for a nap and the moms went shopping. It was quite a sight to see us trying to navigate and make a purchase in a Chinese department store. You would think it would not be that hard but you have to pay for things differently here. You pick out a pair of shoes and rather than going to the main check out counter you have to find another cashier, pay for your item that you don't yet have and then go back and pick up your item. They were trying to explain this too us but no one spoke a word of English so we just wandered around giggling until we eventually figured it out. 

Off to bed now. Tomorrow we go to the US Consulate to finish our paperwork. Twenty-four hours later we will get Hadley's visa and we are free to leave China. America we will see you in a few short days! Add in to the next couple of days a dinner cruise on the river overlooking downtown, a morning shopping on the island, a 3 hour drive to Hong Kong and 30 hours of traveling with a toddler and you get a very busy schedule. We have enjoyed our time here but I can't wait to get home!