We finally made the trip to Bengbu today. The weather was great for the trip there. We left the hotel at 9AM and arrived there at 11:30. On the way there we passed through some villages. There were alot of poeple out and about. Some were selling their goods on the street curb, mostly food items. In China most people buy their food daily unlike in the US where we buy weekly. It's funny to see the tiny grocery carts at the grocery store here. I don't think they would hold four gallons of milk. Anyway, we passed a section of road construction. It is very muddy and they were moving the dirt and bricks by hand. Even though we were out from the city some the traffic was still bad. It was a two lane road that most of the time was made into tree by cars passing eachother. After a while we did get on a freeway, AKA interstate, and the traffic wasn't nearly as bad. Motorcycles and scooters were not allowed.

Bengbu is a small city compaired to Hefei. Only 500,000 people and Hefei has 5 million. We arrived at the orphanage and Cindy led us to the 5th floor. We met with the director and finished up with some adoption business. We then were allowed to meet with some of the children, take some photos and see were Lindy slept. The place was very clean and you could smell whatever they had for lunch. Most of the younger kids were sleeping and a bunch of older kids were watching a tv show. It was a short visit, but a good one. Lindy did really well. No sad reactions!

We then went to lunch with the director. It was at a hotel in Bengbu. The resturant was on top and it revolved with a great view of the city. Of course the food was chinese. Cindy helped me pick some items I knew we would like. Lindy ate great but Molly would only eat noodles. After lunch our trip to Bengbu was complete.  We now have the Chinese side of Lindy's paperwork done. She has a passport to come home with us.

We had asked Cindy to dinner this evening. Well she told us that everything would be very busy because of Christmas celebrations. We had no idea how busy! We walked to pizza hut and the line was about a block long! Tried KFC and although it wasn't as busy we were going to have to wait there too. So we come back to the hotel and ate a sandwich at the coffee shop. We had a great visit and everyone had a great time.

It is amazing how they celebrate Christmas here. It's like we celebrate New Years Eve. The girls were given party favors complete with horns and clappers! Although we miss being with our families on for the holiday we have had a great day. One we will not forget.

Tomorrow we will leave the hotel at noon. Our flight to Guangzhou is at 1:30. The next few days will be very busy. Lots of shopping, shopping and shopping with some adoption appointments in there too! Ha Ha So the next report will be from the White Swan Hotel.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!

Sherry, David and the girls