Sweet Boys

God has blessed our family with two more very sweet children. Both boys are generally happy and eager to please. 

The Garden Hotel, where we are staying is one of the nicest hotels we have ever stayed.  I have sometimes complained that the breakfasts are a bit too Western here ( never any fried rice, although they do have noodles and greens), but they totally won Jerry's heart today by offering sushi and lamb on the breakfast buffet. 

This morning we enjoyed a trip to the city Zoo, the boys first chance to ever see these animals live. They were most excited to see the Pandas, of course, but they were inside and hard to see. (The Atlanta Zoo has an Amazing panda area where the pandas are often sitting only a few inches away through the glass.)  Some animals in this zoo are in cement cages, so we got a really good look at the lions and tigers.  Work was going on everywhere so I imagine someday all the animals will live in natural habitats

This afternoon, after waiting to hear if any of the children in our group had tested positive for TB (none had), the boys were excited to  hear that we were going out on our own again, by taxi, to the toy and gift market. As you can see we found some more wild animals there in the gift area.  When we offered to let the boys buy some small (fake) lego sets, they each chose one. I gestured that they could each choose two. William said he only wanted one, while Peter began to search for a second.  Then it was apparent that William was admonishing Peter to be happy with one and not spend any more money. Peter looked to me and I told them Both to choose two.  We had two very happy boys.

Here is another picture in the hotel lobby with the boys holding the noodle bowls we bought for dinner.  Jerry continues his ice cream diet here. While they boys and I had fried rice at a Chinese restaurant for lunch, Jerry found fruit with a scoop of purple ice cream on the menu and ordered it for his lunch. We all had a ice cream cone at the toy market and Jerry had two more while buying the noodle bowls. Now he is at the fitness center and the boys have showered. Or at least they ran the water - Twice I have taken them into the bathroom and demonstrated turning on the shower, putting shampoo on my head and putting soap all over my body.Soap and shampoo are luxuries not necessarily available in orphanages.  I saw a government sponsored tv commercial today showing how to wash hands with soap as a health precaution.  Yesterday I demonstrated the difference between the way boys use a western toilet and the way girls use it. I was tired of sitting down on a wet set.  Just some things you might not have considered about older child adoption, but today,for us, it is all very good.