Elephant Bowls

Today we went to Elephant park, beautiful place. More temples, but a lot less people. The weather was chilly and really windy and Natalie slept thru the whole tour because last night Natalie and Stephanie had a slumber party and they stayed up until 12:30ish. I woke up on occasion and Natalie would stop playing and give me the eye, BUT, the eye is starting to settle. Natalie, probably because of the medicine we have had to give her to make her "regular", was wired. She woke up this morning about 7:30 screaming her head off and we tried snacks, drinks, checked her temperature and was giving up when we realized that she had a wet diaper, which Steph changed (see it ain't all bad not being able to touch your child) and the world was good again! Back to the tour...neat place. It's a little strange to me that you have army guards "guarding" the park and then when your inside, it's monks in the temple and a few novelty shops. Everything is very clean and well kept, except the bathrooms, which are NAS T! The architecture was similar to the other places we've toured just not as tall.

We had lunch at a Japanese restaurant, Nat had fish eggs "Salmon Roe", loved 'em and now I am thinking that not only does she not like me, it is going to take a fortune to feed the little ninja! (get it - Natalie JingAnn Hooker - NJAH) Ok, got that from a friend, but it fits! After lunch, we set out on the streets to look for books, English to Chinese and visa versa, which we found and purchased. We also were looking for a baby shop that another couple, Danielle and Michael, had mentioned,and after going down many narrow streets and even more narrow alleys, we finally found. We bought a bowl which Natalie loves. We got some pictures of her in her orphanage yesterday and in some, she was carring a bowl, so we thought we would give that a try. Who knew? She has been carrying it, along with her chopsticks around all night. Took em to dinner with her. We had to distract her to get them away from her. Anyway, the book store, which was also a music shop and the baby store was only a couple of blocks from the hotel. While at the baby store, we ran into several other couples from our group and again, we were all surrounded by the local people who are so interested and appreciative that we are giving their little ones a better life. Of course, when they get close to Natalie, she screams and wants her moma, which makes me very proud because they have no idea she does the same thing with me! Almost everyone you pass by gives you a "thumbs up". A few follow you, which at first is uncomfortable, but after you realize that they are just curious, it ok. The children here are really interested too and they are so cute! These people live very simple lives and use evey available inch of space. We got some really neat pictures, which hopefully we will get posted shortly. There are so many shops and little grocery stores and places to eat and then throw in the street vendors and there's almost enough room to walk. And when I say little shops, it's like there was just enough space to put a picnic table in a room and they opened up the store. Most of the people at the stores we have been have a calculator and they add up your purchases and show you the calculator. It's pretty simple.

Natalie was in rare form tonight! She is coming out and her little personality is shining. She is still very shy around others, but she actually held my hand and she let me help feed her tonight and I actually touched her and her head didn't turn around on her shoulders, so we are making progress. For the first couple of days, we thought she didn't know how to smile, but smiles are common now and her laugh is so sweet. All of the children in our group are remarkably different now than they were a few days ago and all have figured out how much we love them and there's is a secure calm in all. Of course, there are several like me, who just fix the food, sit back and watch the fun, but we are all getting closer as the days go by, but in the morning, it will start all over again, but hopefully, like today, it won't last all day! Steph has done a wonderful job of balancing Natalie's needs and also including me in on everything, so Natalie kinda has to take me with the activity currently in the works. Natalie is too young to understand the meaning of money, so I have resorted to sweets! The money is still working on Steph!

We hope you are well! God Bless!