PJs + Music + Pizza = Good : )

I have spent the last couple of hours in the hotel room lying under the covers, closing my ears with Colbie Caillat, and eating Papa John's pizza. Sweet relief!

-trip to ZhuHai, Ms. Zhong and Xiao Xiao-

Today was long, as I expected, but seemed pretty smooth. The car ride was peaceful (I actually slept for about half of it). When we got to the orphanage Teddi stayed very calm, but very attached to my mom and I- a good thing, but the caretakers wanted to hold her and hug her, too. Eventually, she loosened up once she realized that we weren't going to leave her there. We hung out in a room for awhile, listening to the caretakers chat in Chinese- they all just wanted to see Teddi. We exchanged gifts and they gave my mom a scrapbook of Teddi. This is somthing pretty special that I don't think they do for every child. They flipped through it and Mr. Li translated some of what was written. Each one of the caretakers had actually written a note to her with a picture of themselves with Teddi.

They also brought in a couple of Teddi's friends so they could see her again. They shared candy and hugged on one another and we took lots of pictures for her. We went to the playground too, and she was so happy!

We took some family pictures outside before we left. The Johnsons were there too, with their daughter Hai Ping, and Ms. Zhong and the other orphange director.

Leaving was the tough part. Ms. Zhong held Teddi one last time and kissed her cheek. Teddi didn't cry, but Ms. Zhong did. So did my mom. It was heartbreaking, but they both know that it's the best for Teddi. Ms. Zhong is so strong and so sweet. I was honored to shake her hand before we left.

We also drove to Teddi's finding spot, the place where she was abandoned. I bet you can imagine the emotion here. Hard, but important.

So- a very long morning, and we were all quite hungry after all of this so Mr. Li takes us out to lunch, again. He again orders lots of diffent items and they bring them out to the table and place them on the large spinning serving tray in the middle so we can all eat. He tells us he ordered a number of things: chicken, noodles, rice, vegetables, kalamari and pumpkin cake. Sounds good, right?
Not the case. The "chicken" turned out to be duck (which I was not made aware of until after lunch and after I had eaten some :P) the noodles were garlic noodles underneath some hard-to-shell shrimp, the rice was alright (probably the best part of the meal), the vegetables were some green spinach-artichoke-bean thing (not good), the kalamari was whole squid on a plate complete with tentacles (which I did not eat), and the pumpkin cake was some kind of fried vegetable thing with some pumpkin in it. Thanks, but no thanks Mr. Li.

Long trip back home, and then pajamas. Pajamas are wonderful, combined with this bed and some Colbie Caillat, everything is better! :D The next few days should be very relaxing, we don't have any big plans again until Tuesday.

Thanks for all the prayers, guys! One more week and the Winders will be home!

Night,
Taylor - sleeping in :)