Today we went to the zoo.

Yes, we are hitting up tourist stops in Guangzhou. A week down, a week to go. I was just saying to David tonight...1 week from right now, we will be almost to the north pole.

At the zoo we saw monkeys like crazy, a very anxious or hungry growling tiger, a cheetah, some leopards, and a panda bear. The giraffes were nice too. Lauren and Marcus and Annabelle loved the zoo. Sophia didn't care so much about it, but that's ok! She crawled today. We were told that she crawled a lot at the orphanage, but we hadn't seen it yet. It was cute, but she didn't get very far...just trying it out! She had a pretty good day today. Still adjusting, but seems to be enjoying us more each day. Lauren had quite a good time playing with her during breakfast and Sophia was into it as well.

Why do we have to stay this long, you might be wondering. Well, it's not because we are longing to take in all the sights. Every step takes time to develop. Yesterday we applied for a chinese passport, which takes at least two days. We pick those up tomorrow afternoon. We need those in order to go to the US consulate on Monday to apply for a visa for Sophia to put in her passport. Saturday is the medical examination which is also required for the consulate date. Then the visa takes two days, so we cannot leave until Wednesday night. We will actually leave Guangzhou Thursday morning and Beijing Thursday late afternoon and Chicago Thursday late afternoon as well. It will be the day that never ends. Like 40 hours or so. Anyway, that is the deal with staying over this long! But we are half way there. We are looking forward to being home.

Tomorrow is laundry day. In the tub, by hand. Doesn't that sound like fun? We were told we could do it over here, but it's kind of pricey, so we are going to see what we can do on our own! Should be interesting. I'm falling asleep at the computer, time for bed! night.