We are now in Changsha, which is the provincial capitol of Hunan province. Tomorrow morning, we will go to the Civil Affairs Office and meet our children!  I am so excited,  I can’t even sleep!  Today was spent getting up at the crack of dawn to catch an early flight from Beijing, settling in at the hotel, gathering and giving our paperwork to our guide, and changing our dollars into Chinese yuen.  After doing all of this, it was only about noon local time, so we decided to go exploring with the other family with whom we are traveling.  We set out down the street and found what looked like a fast food Chinese restaurant.  We, of course, couldn’t read anything on the menu, and no one spoke English.  This is the second time since we have been here that we ventured out and just walked into a restaurant to eat.  Todd is a seasoned traveler, so he wasn’t worried about ordering.  We simply pointed to various items on the menu, held up a finger to indicate we wanted one of each item, and then we waited to see what would arrive at our table.  A couple of days ago when we did this in Beijing, Simeon and Lillah were pretty sure they wouldn’t be eating anything.  Once the food arrived, however, they were delighted to use their chopsticks to pick up delicious beef and celery and various dumplings with different fillings.  It was all quite tasty.  Today, we ended up with a couple of soups that appeared to be rice-based, one with chicken and the other with some kind of fruit.  We also had a spicy mushroom and beef dish and some spicy noodles.  We finished almost all of it, even the spicy food, and left only a little of the fruity soup.  I have been impressed by the children’s willingness to try new and different foods.  The chopsticks have been a big hit, especially with Simeon.  If there is a fork available, Lillah will use that, but today we had only chopsticks, so we had to make do.  I have been thankful for the chopsticks skills I acquired while living for 7 years in California!

I am going to try and get some sleep.  I can’t believe we will meet our sweet children in the morning and begin the true adventure.  We are ready for the challenge!