Paperwork Party!

Monday - July 4th

After a fairly restful night, we awoke to a drizzly and overcast sky. Tim went for a run, dodging taxi cabs, souped up mopeds and rickshaws along the way and enjoyed the morning sights and sounds of this "small" city of 3 million. Our guide met us at our hotel at 8:30am and we made our way to a photography studio where we were to have Belle's passport photo made. This place was more or less their version of the DMV and she didn't like this at all. She screamed and screamed (like most of us do at the DMV) and the line grew longer. Finally they got a shot that will pass for a passport photo.

We then made our way to the Civil Affairs office for the official paperwork. Our guide is very good and very efficient - she was able to have all the paperwork lined up, filled out ahead of time, copies made, etc before our arrival and the process was smooth and uneventful - another answer to prayer. All in all, we finished everything in less than 3 hours in one visit versus several appointments this week. We found it ironic that she was "officially official" on July 4th - Independence Day on many, many levels!

We returned to the hotel for a bite of lunch and let Belle take a nap, then met our guide later in the afternoon for a visit to the market. It was kind of like a Wal-mart, Trader Joe's and Kroger's all rolled into one. We picked up some more diapers, formula, etc and milled around looking at everything from badminton raquets and chinese barbies, to the fresh fish, fresh chicken feet, hog's nose, sow's ears, and other delicacies that we chose to pass on. We made it back to the room and watched the end of the taped Tour De France coverage (in Chinese, of course) and fell into bed. Long day, but so good! 

Thank you again for your prayers. More later! 

Tim