We had our own Brunswick Lanes Bowling Tournament!  Blake, Ethan, Grandpa and Tim had a lot of fun bowling today!  Blake and Ethan think this is almost the best part of the hotel.  Since the pool is not open yet, the bowling alley is a great option.  You would think we bowled all the time back home, which we don't.  Part of the fun is doing something familiar in not so familiar surroundings.  Odd I know.  But nevertheless more fun than bowling could be back home.

We tried to get an extension on Cindy's mom's flight so that she could stay the entire time with us, but there are just no seats available on Continental.  Travel seems heavy right now.  We will leave them here in Fuzhou and they will return to the home on Saturday via Beijing & Newark.  We have three more days together and plan to enjoy them!

A change in the schedule-as you know we were praying about the possibility of Tim's travel to the orphanage and we felt like that was not something that we should try to fit in to what we are accomplishing.  We did get a camera back from the orphanage that we sent back in the Fall so look forward to getting those photos developed, but it did not seem wise for several reasons.  The direction to not go was quite clear and for that we are grateful.

Pray for Levi.  We know that his physical body may struggle with the diet change.  He is now getting formula and that is a quite a change for him.  He seemed to have an upset tummy last night and was quite fussy, but he did sleep all night-about 9 hours so maybe our OTC meds we brought form home handled any issues he might have.  He seems fine this morning.  We also know that he has to deal with his own loss as time goes on and that easily could have been part of the problem.  But, a good night's sleep was a gift form the Lord and he certainly seems better this morning.  We are so very blessed to be able to request to all of you to take him to the Father who has known him and had already assigned "angel nannies" to him for his first 13 months of life!  Pray for Him physically and emotionally.  Nothing we say sounds familiar to his little ears or heart.  But hugs and kisses communicate the same message and he'll come to us while he is playing for reassurance.

It's the rainy season in this semi-tropical climate.  The area reminds you somewhat of Orlando, but a little cooler than Orlando this time of year.  The all day rain from yesterday seems to have quit for today and the heavy, heavy fog will hopefully burn away as the sun tries to shine.

This feels like the "long-stretch" for us to get our stride and pace ourselves for this trip.  Focus on bonding with our new family and consider what the Lord has in mind and allow Him to speak to us clearly.  Go a little deeper into the culture and look for what we are to take away from Fuzhou in our hearts and minds.  This is ZhiBei's world and life and we are about to remove him from his culture.  The responsibility is significant,  but his life nor ours is defined by the world we find ourselves in physically. 

As huge and distant as the world seems when you travel half way around the globe, it's interesting that you have a greater sense of how small this world really is.  Kind of like the realization in life when "the more you learn, the more you realize you don't know"!  The more of the globe you see, the deeper and more real the Hope becomes through Faith that everything you see is not "it".  "We have this treasure in earthen vessels."