It is Day 9 and we are officially half way through our trip!  Woohoo!  It is all downhill from here.

Last night we went to our favorite Muslim diner up the street.

It is crazy how good it is.  The meal I get never actually smells that great when I get it, but man oh man does it taste great!  And I decided to have noodles this time instead of rice.  I didn’t think it could get any better, and yet it did!

Charlie and I posed for a quick picture and you can see the shop owner and his daughter in the background.

Now that we are a family of seven here, the girls get their own table.

While we were walking around today, Kelly noticed a lady who was counting us.  Just like we are back at home!  Seven in China equals 10-15 in the United States!

When we got back to the hotel room, we FaceTime’d the kids and Charlie, as usual, was center stage.

Today was the “official” adoption day for Ashley and Charlie.  A paperwork process that is not overly efficient in this province.  Yesterday when we were filling out paperwork we just stopped in the middle and came back.  Today was a challenge to see if we got it all correct.  And wouldn’t you know Kelly’s birthday was wrong.  There was a period of time with lots of talking and phone calling and I wondered if our travel plans were changing since that information came from the main adoption agency in Beijing.

But they must have figured it out and we were back to the races with signing and placing our finger print on all the documents, one set for each child.

As he did yesterday, Charlie kept a close eye on the details.

Pitching in where needed.

Maybe gum will keep him busy?

Ashley had to sign her statement saying that she wanted to be adopted and added a hand print to the document.

We didn’t think that Charlie would have to do it since he is only ten, but … Hey!  What ten year old boy doesn’t like getting ink all over his hand?!

It was time for Charlie’s orphanage directors to head back, so he gave them a quick hug and then waved good-bye!

Ashely spent a few minutes with her China mom before she left.  But, we are going to her orphanage tomorrow morning, so we may well see her again.

While all this was going on, Caleb was busy building unsteady towers out of small stools and then climbing up on top!  What were we thinking having THREE ten year old boys!

Katelyn is a lot of help with the little guys, playing with them and helping to keep them busy.

After a quick trip to the notary (and my being reprimanded for trying to take a picture) we went back to the hotel and took a nap!  It felt pretty good.  The kids played UNO and Kelly and I “rested” for awhile.

As if we didn’t flirt with danger enough yesterday, Kelly was all up for trying a different street vendor for lunch today.  We had seen this couple yesterday not far from the bread lady and they were making wraps with various meats and an egg.  Yesterday seemed to go down OK, so why not try our luck again?

https://youtu.be/69He_R7eAZE

We are most certainly living on a prayer here in Wuhan!

One of the things that we were concerned about was Charlie’s ability to walk for long distances.  When we asked the orphanage directors about it, they said that he walked to school and back every day and that was about 15 minutes each way.  So we decided to trek over to the park again, which is probably around 3 km from our hotel (do you like how I am going all metric on you?)

He was a trooper.  Made it the entire way without complaining at all.  Kelly offered to carry him for awhile at one point and he wouldn’t hear of it!

When we were at the park earlier, it was a pretty overcast and rainy day so we didn’t really get to experience how pretty the park really was.  But today was a beautiful sun-shinning day (as much as you can seen the sun in a large Chinese city) and the park was really beautiful.  We stopped just before going in and picked up some ice cream (one of Katelyn’s three food groups:  meat, ice cream, and snacks) and we all sat around eating and enjoying the warm sun.

Well, the sun was a little TOO hot, so we moved to a more shaded area!

The kids had energy to burn, and so they ran up and down the pathways and raced up staircases whenever available.  You can’t even see them in this shot as they are way up at the top.

We followed them up and took a picture of the Chinese Bernadsky Clan at the top.

Ashely offered to take a shot of Kelly and I.

And … well …

Then it was a race down …

… and out of the park!

As we walked back I took a picture over the railroad tracks.  This is a pretty typical urban living environment for the parts of China that we have stayed.

While there are really nice buildings here, a lot of them are fairly run down.  I was thinking today as I followed the guide up to the notary office that the stairwell we were walking up, dirty with grime all over the walls and lit with single, bare light bulbs, would probably be considered the projects back home.  But here, it is a major financial building.  It is sometimes hard to reconcile a society as old as this whose newest cities are older than our oldest ones.  All a matter of perspective.

We passed this restaurant with what looked like funeral arrangements out front.  That seemed like a bad omen.  This from a family that is eating from street vendors.

Kelly does an awesome job of not only packing light, but also packing things for the kids to do!  This is a long time away from home, and today she had the girls making bracelets …

… and the boys painting.

Dinner was at a new restaurant that was recommended by our guide, The Greenery.  We got our own little room because of the size of our party.

For some reason, the girls decided to practice their wedding toasts.

On the way back to our hotel, we decided to get a little dessert from …

Wait for it …

A street vendor!

Seriously probably the best dessert I have had in China.  It was basically waffle bites that she was making on a propane fire.  I haven’t been overly impressed with Chinese desserts, but this was pretty tasty.

As we rounded the corner to head back to our hotel, there was a crescent moon and a starry night and it all just looked too pretty not to take a picture.

Another day in the books for our little band of adventurers.  Tomorrow we are looking at single digits until we get to come home!  Everyone is  very ready.

Cameron

https://youtu.be/HGEYZDYsuzU

https://youtu.be/rEb9WeFwj38