WHAT? We're going to Datong today?!

Ok, so after I made myself look like a complete idiot by leaving the orphanage donation in the safe, Emma called the van driver to take Kelley back to the hotel to retrieve the money !

Good thing I forgot it. Hannah was at the hotel resting. We thought we were going to the civil affairs office, then back to the hotel...no big deal ... WRONG!!!!

Emma told Kelley as she got on the van, it was going to be a very long day for the baby ... we had a 4 hour van ride to Datong to apply for her passport, then a 4 hour trip home. WHAT ?!?!?!?!?!?!?!? I must be crazy .. I completely missed that. No extra milk ... no extra food ... nada.

Kelley used Emma's phone to call Hannah and have her start throwing things together. We thought Datang was on Wednesday.

Needless to say, I was surprised when they both came back to the CA office.

We boarded the bus, with another family, and set out for a car ride.
We had just the little milk we started the day with ... and somebody didn't want plain water ! About halfway thru the drive we stopped at a gas station/convenience store ... that was interesting. We used the good old country version of the squatty potty. The smell of pee on a hot day just makes you want to vomit ! BUT you do what you gotta. Port-a-potties ... well they ain't that bad!

I asked Emma to help me get something for Mari-Grace to eat. She was getting hungry and cranky. We got porridge in a can. THAT was interesting. It had oatmeal, rice, beans, peanuts, and only the Lord in heaven knows what else. We also got a can of peanut milk. PRAY SHE DOESN"T HAVE PEANUT ALLERGIES !!!

She liked the porridge. I fed her the solid parts, and poured what I could of the liquid in her bottle. I thinned it with a little water, so it would have some taste. That satisfied Mari-Grace for a while.

When we got to the police station, an interesting thing happened. There was a very pretty older lady sitting in the corner. She watched us from the time we walked in ... never took her eyes off of us and Mari-Grace. At one point, we had to get up and change where we were sitting. She kept looking at us and smiling. After a few minutes, she got up ... walked over to us and leaned down to Mari-Grace. Emma was in the middle of filing our papers, so she wasn't near us. This woman talked to Mari-Grace ...She rubbed her arm ... she rubbed her back.....I was a little freaked ... since I didn't know what she was saying. It didn't seem to upset Mari-Grace, so I just smiled. The only phrase we heard the woman say, that we recognized, was Wo Ai Ni ... which is Chinese for I love you. The woman had big tears in her eyes. She patted me ... she patted Mari-Grace, then she left.
God puts guardian angels in many places. Maybe this had been Mari-Grace's special angel. Maybe she was a someone who knew Mari-Grace's family. Maybe she was a grandmother or mother of a cleft baby who had to be abandoned. Maybe she was Mari-Grace's biological grandmother. Maybe she had worked that the Datong City orphanage, and recognized Mari-Grace. We'll never know. But for some reason, she was drawn to us .. no other family.

We waited at the police station for 2 hours. Emma, our guide, was mad. Apparently Datong is the only city that requires the families to travel to the city to apply for the passport. She says all of the other cities do everything by fax machine. The PD in Datong is apparently notorious for making families wait forever in the station for a 3 minute process of passport application.

OH WELL ... Emma will pick up the passport on Friday, then off to Guangzhou.