Happy Thanksgiving From Hefei

Good Morning from Hefei! It's 4 am and the babies (I love saying that) are still asleep. I don't even know where to start with this post? Should I start with my job offer to teach in China, or our progress with Xiao Ya? (pronounced shee-ow ya).

Okay well it wasn't quite an offer, but we met a lady at McDonalds of all places, who is here teaching english and she was having lunch with her friend who does the hiring for foreigners. I think she thought when I said that I'd love to teach in China someday, as my bags are packed and when can I start. She even came back 10 minutes later to give me more information.

I really would consider living here for a year or two, but the timing is a little off at the moment!!

We were pretty busy yesterday. We started off with a short tour of Lord Bao's Memorial Temple, where all the kids had so much fun running around (the other family we are with are traveling with 3 older girls.) It was such a beautiful day that as soon as they dropped us off back at the hotel we all took off on foot to the park. My mom talked me into renting paddle boats, which was fine, but there weren't any life preservers on them! So we risked life and limb and Grandma Rena and Jake rented a boat, and Jie Ling and I rented one. Jie Ling insisted on steering our mighty fine duck vessel, where we promptly went round and round in circles. I finally had to insist on helping out, and we had a beautiful cruise around the lake. My camera battery of course went dead, so no pictures of this Kodak moment. It was great fun, and the old rickety paddle boat never sank!

All this time baby Xiao Ya hung out in the stroller (Jie Ling wouldn't go near the stroller when we adopted her) kicking her legs and yelling something in Chinese whenever her dad stopped pushing her. I did carry her in the baby pack for a half an hour earlier in the day, and she did okay. She's not crazy about the closeness, so this is something that will take some time.

We headed back to the hotel around dinner time, and I decided to stay in the room with Ya Ya while the others went to eat. This was a good thing as Xiao Ya let me in a little more into her space. I don't know what happened, but by the time everyone came back, she was falling into my arms giggling. My heart was full!!

edited to add: I cut this post early as Xiao Ya woke up!