Finally - our last paperwork!

We had a great day today (Sunday) site seeing at the Chen Family Academy. It is over 100 years old and is now a folk art museum. It was very crowded, being a weekend. We toured this same site when we were here with Megan so it was a "redo" for us. We did get a chance to order a hand painted scroll for Madelyn that should arrive at the hotel on Tuesday. Megan has one hanging in her room that we bought 4 years ago.

I told Megan about the hand carved bone and she really wanted to see it. The pictures don't do it justice. The work is so intricate that you can only see some of it by magnifying glass. The workmanship is truly amazing. That was about the extent of our attention span so we spent the rest of the time hanging around our group and the girls played and ran around the small palm trees.

We returned to the hotel for a diaper change and brief rest before heading out for lunch. We walked to one end of the island where a new Italian restaurant is located. The lunch was excellent and Megan ate an entire plate of spaghetti with meat sauce (I didn't even get a bite...). Madelyn fell asleep for her afternoon nap just as the meals came so that worked out well. We strolled through the streets after lunch amazed at the number of bridal photo shoots going on. We asked several of the locals who told us that the island is one of the most popular places for wedding photos. There were literally hundreds of brides with photographers all over the place. There was even a movie or commercial being filmed as well. We made it through the maze of Brides in dresses (and tennis shoes) and grooms in tuxes to the most important stop of the afternoon; Starbucks!

We had our final paper work session late in the afternoon. We got all our US paperwork in order to finalize our consulate visit in a couple of days. It was tedious and got started late due to the group before us being late. It took 2 hours instead of one. Lynne was with the girls by herself the entire time so she was glad to see me! Erin, Bob, Mollianne and Meisey came over for pizza (that we ordered from the same Italian restaurant from lunch). The girls played games and we really enjoyed our time together. Madelyn crashed early in the evening and we were all entertained by Meisey's antics as she fought to stay awake. Meisey was at Madelyn's first birthday party at the orphanage and the two get along as well as 12 month olds can.

We are excited to have a couple of days with no plans other than a trip to the grocery store tomorrow. Madelyn did great today with the formula mixture and ate and slept well. We are looking forward to another night of sleep :) The closer Friday gets, the more anxious we are to get home. The flight home is a bit daunting knowing that it is a long day and we will have two girls to worry about and limited space on the plane. We also had another realization today that Madelyn has never been in a car seat and is not real crazy about being belted in so that will be an experience as well.

Thanks again for the emails and comments on the blog. We love hearing from you and can't wait to get home.

Matt