Well much to report on the fourth day as a family of five.  i have included a number of photos and will attempt to discuss them in order.  if i miss something, then just enjoy the chinese scenery without the commentary.  

yesterday morning i made the final trek to the orphanage to give a donation as a "child rearing fee".  because we did not want to confuse Lizzie by bringing her back to the orphanage so soon, anne and the boys and Lizzie stayed back at the hotel and i went with our guide/translator.   I can honestly say that previous to this excursion i considered this payment to be little more than some kickback to a government official for my being allowed to adopt a child.  my visit was simultaneously illuminating and humbling.  before we arrived there i had asked our guide and translator if it was possible for me to see some of the orphanage. she thought so and we stopped at a local store to get some candy and treats for the kids there in case we got in to see any of them.  after arriving, the orphange director, Ms. Zhong (not sure of the spelling on that one, but she was not the kind of director you might have imagined... a fashionable woman in her mid 20s) said that i could see some of the orphanage and even take some pictures as long as the kids were not there.  I was allowed into the part of the orphanage where the foster care kids come in every day for what amounts to daycare/kindergarted/grade school depending on their ages.   the pictures you see are from the outside of the orphanage and one of the rooms i was in.  after i saw the rooms, the kids came in for the day and we got to hand out the goodies we had bought and my heart just broke for these kids... but not just in the way you might think.  obviously my heart ached to see these kids there because most of them woudl probably not be getting adopted any day son due to their age (all over the age of 3) and their medical/physical issues.  But the orphanage was so clean and obviously run well, the helpers i saw with the kids (3-4 per 8-10 kids) were obviously in love with these kids, and the kids themselves were bright eyed, engaging (especially the little cross-eyed downs syndrome girl... man was she a cutie) and clearly happy to be there for the day.  i had been all set to do some heavy  duty judging on these people for the kind of people they were and the society they were a part of, and instead I found myself incredibly glad that Lizzie had been fortunate enough to have been raised by them up till now.  i never did much like arrogance, but i like it even less in myself.  I was honestly glad to pay the donation, seeing what good they were trying to do with it.  as a kicker, i did not have exact change and asked if they woudl just keep the extra for the kids, to which they replied that they were not allowed to do that to make sure there was no appearance of corruption... so much for kickbacks.  as i paid the donation fee to the director,  i told her, in chinese (carefully rehersed), "thank you for caring for my daughter.  we will take very good care of her."  

today was a big tourist day... we took the Maglev train into Beijing. the train itself was pretty cool.  it tops out at 330km/hour (a little over 200mph) and is an incredibly smooth ride.  from the train station we took a van out to the great wall and hiked around on it for a couple hours.  i say hiked because it is steep!  picture a ladder with uneven steps going up for about 800 meters.  needless to say we did not climb the whole way up, but we did get up quite a ways.  one of the more memorable parts of the trip was the chinese woman in the parking lot who wanted to take a picture with Anne... just to get a picture with a blond haired westerner, with an adopted child to boot.  see the attached picture of anne and the unknown photographic assailant.  we had heard of this happening before to others but this was the first time it happened to us.  even more comical, further up on the wall Justin had 5 people ask to take pictures with him... he said he felt like something between a cardboard cutout and a panda at the local zoo.  actually, justin was not the only target for sightseers... next to him was a guy from africa in full african garb, so people were moving down the line from Justin on to the african guy.  they should have gotten together and charged admission.

after the wall we went as close as we could get to the birdsnest stadium that we all saw so much of over the olympics.  unfortunately, we could not get all that close because the para-olympics were happening at the time and security was so tight, you coudl not just wander past the stadium unless you had a ticket to something.   we at least got to see it and the water cube.  from there we went on a rickshaw tour of on old part of Beijing called the Houton (again, spelling??).  kind of cool old streets and the kind of "old walls" my mom loves to look at.  these happened to be about 500 years old in places, so all in all we felt like we got to see both the ancient and the new in Beijing.  

of course, the reason we are this outgoing with our new baby girl is that we have quickly learned that she is an obligate extrovert!  the only time she is ever really ornery is when we are stuck at the hotel and any time we go out she is happy as a clam... or oyster... or whatever the chinese equivalent.  up until  today she has continued to prefer anne heavily over any of us (see the photo where she has consented to ride in the stroller but only if she is can hang on to annes finger), to the point of screaming if anne was not holding her or touching her at all times.  needless to say this makes things a bit exhausting for anne.  however, beginning last night, through today, and especially tonight, she has loosened up on this restriction, at least where the boys are concerned.  she has started wandering forth from Anne's grasp and found that she really likes the rapt attention she gets from her big brothers, both of whom are ridiculously attentive at all times and willing to bend over backward if she so much as smiles in their direction.  they really are great big brothers.  alas, Lizzie has not warmed up as much to me as of yet... my picking her up seems to mean that she does not get to be with anne.  i did carry her in the backpack up and down the Great Wall a bit, but that was an event that was as much theater of the absurd as anything else.  she does not mind the back pack if anne is wearing it, but we put her in it and then it on me just before we descended the wall, and she threw quite a temper tantrum that had all the locals practically throwing money... how many westerners does it take to wrestle a chinese native into a backpack?  at least 4, assuming 25 people are all standing around pointing, laughing, and offering unintelligible suggestions in Manderin.  she did eventually calm down and let me carry her for a bit without whining, but i have been a bit suspect ever since.  i have hopes however that she will let me back into her good graces soon... at least before she goes to college.

that notwithstanding, she is eating well, she is sleeping well, she is even pooping well (never underestimate the benefits of that in a 15 month old).  more than anything, we are each hoplessly in love with this little girl and she shows every sign of becoming a fabulous card-carrying Kedl for the remainder of her blessed life.  

in future posts i will write less and show more.  i am working on getting another video online, but we have taken a lot of video by now so it is taking me a while to get it all loaded on my computer.  will hopefully upload it tomorrow.

We love all the comments and messages so many of you have left on the blog site. if it does indeed take a village (which i am sure it does), then we are more than covered.   thanks so much for all the prayers and support.  they are truly tangible.  Love to all.

Ross.