A Peaceful Moment Thursday afternoon

Hey dear friends and family,
This is actually Meg posting... The last 4 days have been a whirlwind and this is the first moment i have not had our new little one in my arms. She is napping on the bed behind me and Jim and the others are playing a game of billiards. I would call it pool except the table is so strangely huge and a gentleman attendant is there constantly to see if you need anything!!! The hospitality here is amazing and the Chinese people so gracious to us. We have occasionally gotten some disaproving looks but those are few and far in between.

Now on to Joy..... She is doing wonderful today!!! Though we cannot fully explain it, somehow being at the orphanage yesterday changed something for her. Though she sobbed when we left, she seems to now understand that we are her family and are not going away...(i think those first few days she kept wishing we would) The woman who raised her is an amazing loving woman whose eyes welled up with tears as we drove away. I am thankful beyond words for the love she has given Joy and know i am the recipeint of all her work. It was humbling how kind she was to me. She asked that we keep in touch with her and send her pictures of Joy in her new home.

Today Joy has a lightness about her and is proving to be quite humorous to us. Her nanny kept telling us how clever she was and we are seeing that quite a bit now. They said she does not like to play with dolls but likes more hands on things. She is reminded us quite a bit of her cousin Dale, trying to figure out anything from an IPOD, to the TV changer or the switch on the lamp!!

Thank you so much for your prayers. We leave here in the morning and are heading for Guangzhou where we are all looking forward to a Starbucks and some Western food. I think it will be a long time before we eat at Panda Express again!!!!

Love to all,
Meg