Did you miss us? Alive and well back in Beijing...

Just a quick post while kids are sleeping---will do some catch up posting tomorrow after we get back from Yue Yue's medical, and include some photos. Yue Yue is doing well---smart as a tack and a very able two year old. She babbles away in Qinghai dialect and is teaching us a few new words. Imitates everything and today's new task was copying the toilet habits of big sister. (Gotta admit I love that piece!) Xian's doing very well in her role of big sister--and her daily comment is, "Do we get to keep her for real! Oh, thank you!" So, even though Yue Yue is a bit scrappy, she still seems to be pretty happy with her!

Will post some of our Xining experiences--we did run into some challenges in terms of our accommodations and our guide (mostly in terms of his English comprehension and lack of understanding of children's needs...but it took us a while to figure that out), but the Xining Orphanage and the Christian Action staff who partner with them were superb. Our hotel Internet wasn't Mac friendly and the business centre computers so slow that it wasn't manageable to post anything. We must confess to being very appreciative of Beijing---we did not encounter any other Westerners or Caucasians the entire time we were in Qinghai province, and our one English television channel only seemed to work a few hours a day. A very different world there...but more about that later. Off to bed after a hectic day of travel (made several hours longer and more difficult because of yet a few more "guide problems").