TWO PEAS

Clara and Lu are crazy about each other. Lu follows Clara everywhere and insists on holding hands. Clara is thrilled and runs him all over the hotel, giggling, laughing and making enough racket for you all to hear them back in the States. Now mind you, the Sofitel is not like the White Swan where many adoptive families come and go. It's mostly business people here and our wild children are attracting a fair amount of attention, not in a good way. But, I figure hey, they're bonding, it's good for them, it's absolutely heart warming to watch and we'll never see these people again anyway.

Tomorrow is a "free" day, no paperwork. I think we'll hang out at the pool and enjoy our boisterous big family. Wednesday we're visiting the Terracotta Warriors, which will be fascinating and Thur. we get to go to the "Pink Castle", where Lu has called home up till now. He's learned manners there, good listening skills and is right on par with any two yr. old I know. We continue to be charmed over and over by his smile, easy laugh and adorable personality. He can hold his own with Clara too, which says a lot!

Worth noting, today we found out that what we thought were aftershocks from the big earthquake was actually another earthquake, 6.4, in the same area as before. The news coverage here, so much more intense than what we've seen in the States is so tragic. Being here and seeing how the cities work, how many people live in them, how condensed they are, paints a frightening picture of just how awful things are in Chengdu. We've heard there'll be many orphans as a result and the gov. is working quickly to set up adoption procedures, both domestically and abroad.

We're missing you all, happy to be here with Lu but also excited to introduce him to you. He is so terrific, so fun, so adorable and best of all, he's ours.