Keeping Busy

Thank you for all of the prayers. Today went much smoother…though not perfect.

Abram woke up at 4:50 this morning and I could tell he wasn’t going to go back to his crib. I laid him down with Jeff and he slept with us for the next 2 hours. I know I’ve wrote it before, but he is such a “snuggle bug” in the mornings!

Later that morning, things were heading in the same direction as yesterday…not good! We decided that we needed to keep busy, so we loaded up, got a taxi and went to the city zoo.

(How are we supposed to know that this is the zoo entrance?

Looks like the bus parking lot!)

Since it was a week day and the weather was cooler, the zoo was very empty. We didn’t have an agenda…as long as we were busy and Abram was content, life was good. We walked, Abram walked some, and other times he was content to be in the sling. The zoo was nothing compared to the Safari Park that we were at on Sunday, but still way better than the zoos around our area back home.

We ate our lunch there, but there wasn’t a lot to choose between. Jeff and I got a bowl of Ramen noodles and crackers for Abram (so we thought, but it was actually cookies, oops!). He’s lucky that right now we are ignorant! Once we are home I’ll be familiar with all the packages and labels. After we purchased them, we realized that the package said “Digestive Biscuits”…we’ll see what happens to Abram’s BMs tomorrow! :) By early afternoon we called it quits, before he would be too tired.

Much to our disappointment, Abram wouldn’t take a nap this afternoon. What else can you do, but “roll with the punches”?!

One fun twist to our China travel is that a group of 3 Chinese students traveled 2 hours today, just to meet up with us. What’s crazy to me, is that they didn’t even know us, but they knew some of our friends! Last semester, these 3 students (Ken, Ben and Charlotte) studied in the US and got to know some of the people from our church. Late this afternoon, they arrived and we hung out for the evening. We went to a restaurant that served a variety of ethnic cuisines.

(I ordered baked Alaskan cod…but didn’t expect to see my food staring back at me!)

Abram, for as tired as he was, did the best he’s done at supper tonight. It was a relief not to leave the restaurant with a screaming child. It was also handy having 3 friends who spoke fluent English and Mandarin, as they would ask the waitress questions for us and then interpret.

(the Chinese language book we brought to “help” us communicate. Our Chinese friends got a kick out of it)
Also, this evening, we got Abram’s visa/passport!! It’s final, he’s ours! As soon as we cross into the US and go through Immigration, he’s a US citizen! Tomorrow we have most of the day here and then a night flight, back to the US.

(the famous red couch picture with the last documents we needed to travel back home)

Tomorrow, I’m going to pack and see how much room we have left in our luggage…maybe I can talk Jeff into letting me purchase those beautifully painted bowls that I saw in one of the shops. I’ll see. :)

Love,

Jeff, Chelby & Abram

P.S. this will probably be our last post before we come back home since we leave our hotel tomorrow at 5 pm local time (3 am central time) to begin our marathon journey home! Prayers for patience & wisdom would be much appreciated!