A Pretty Good Day

After a very rough night, today went pretty well. I was up for a couple of hours in the night in agony over everything that went on yesterday. Galen said he didn't think he slept a total of one hour.
This morning we went to Chung Yi, the orphanage in charge of Pei Fang. I felt I had some questions that I had to have answered. They were able to confirm that if Pei Fang had not been adopted, she would have gone back to the orphanage within a year. They use foster homes for younger children and usually a child doesn't stay with a foster family for more than 2 years. Pei Fang's case of being there almost 6 years was very unusual. It made me feel so much better to have that confirmed. As much as that family loved her, she wouldn't have been with them much longer anyway.
We completed some paperwork and then took some pictures. After that we went back to hotel and walked to McDonald's for lunch. We rested for a couple of hours and both of the girls slept. This afternoon we went to an indoor swimming pool. It was a great place. Unfortunately, you will not see any pictures of Galen and I in our lovely swimming caps!
After swimming, we came back and dried our hair and then walked to Pizza Hut for supper. Then we walked around an underground mall. It is underneath the train station. We bought a few things and then stopped for ice cream.
I have never seen so many people in one place. It is crazy walking around here at night. It is a mass of people everywhere you go. And there are so many places to eat. Even with this many people I can't believe all the eating establishments can stay in business. I know it was like this in China but we didn't walk around in it much at all.
I don't think we ever appreciated the support system that we had in traveling to china with 11 other families. There was always somebody around to talk to who spoke English. We are really missing that comraderie this time. Our guides and the orphanage workers have been awesome. But after 2 two days of spending a great deal of time in rooms with people having conversations among themselves in Chinese, we realized how great it was to travel with a group.
I feel like we made progress today. Pei Fang has begun to attach to Galen like she did in California. Sometimes Makenna and I get a response from her and sometimes we don't. But all of that was expected and we know it will get better with time.
We need a lot of wisdom in dealing with her. It is sometimes hard to know when to be firm with her and when to let her have her way. It seems to us that maybe she is very used to getting her way a lot. But we also aren't sure if she is acting up or if something has triggered her grieving. She likes to wander and explore things. So, we continue to covet your prayers.
Tomorrow is our AIT (American Institute of Taiwan) appointment. We will receive Pei Fang's VISA in the afternoon. We would then be free to go home on Saturday but we didn't know that until after our flights had been booked. So as much as we'd like to go home, we believe the Lord has a reason for leaving us here another 3 days.
Jeremy, Kyle and Logan - We really wish you were here. We love you like crazy and hope to talk to you soon!