Sunday Picts

Well this won't be a really deep post :) just lots of pictures of our adventures on Sunday.

Here we are in the morning, Mommy and Hannah are dressed to match, we are even wearing the same butterfly hair barrette.  We are still struggling.  We had a few good days, and now we are back to challenging and pushing me away.  She does great with Josh and Mateo, but not so much with me.  She will refuse to hold my hand, she will be smiling until she sees me smile back at her, and then she turns her head away quickly with a dirty look on her face, and there other things like if I offer her something she will shake her head no, but then when Josh offers the same thing a minute later (not realizing I have just offered) she will take it.  I know all of this is normal and it will take a while...but to be honest, knowing all of this, doesn't change the fact that it hurts my feelings and sometimes makes me really frustrated.  It will get better I know...

 The incense burning was very thick and hard to escape at this temple (eventually I got a headache from it, that was hard to get rid of for the rest of the day.)

 If you look very closely at this below you will see lots of cash stuffed in the wholes of this thing.

 Here is the bin where most of the incenses were being burned.

 From left to right: Past, Present, and Future buddas

 If you look really closely you can see what looks like a swastika...we were told it was a wheel standing for life over and over. 

 Everything is so ornate...

 Some famous poet that visited a long time ago and wrote a poem about the trees...

 A board listing all the names of people who contributed to the renovation of this site, etched into this black wood.

 Our guide explaining this to us.

 What looks like a blueprints etched into the wood...

 a  female budda...if you want to have a baby or grandchild, this is the one you bring offerings to.

 Bored and not really wanting to be there anymore.

 Then we went to the Yuntai Garden...

 Later, after nap, Ershu looking through her stuff and picture album that she brought with her.  She was missing her foster family and her life that was familiar.  I understand that to a point, because I really miss our kids and all that is familiar sometimes, but at least I know I only have a week to go.  Poor Ershu has so much longer to go before home becomes home.

 Then we decided to make the most of our time here, and try to do something on our own.  We asked the concierge desk and they gave us directions on how to get to the ferry dock and buy tickets for a 1 hour ride on 1 of many boats that give these tours up the river, through the city center.  In the end it worked out, but not without a really scary moment! We had just bought our tickets and we were following them to the what we thought was the boat.  It turns out they are planning on driving us to another boat ferry in a van ( with 2 males in the front seat driving).  We refused many times...because we just thought for sure that we were going to be kidnapped or worse!!  Eventually they convince/forced us to get in with them...not really by explaining anything any better to us...and lets just say this was not the smartest move we have ever made while traveling in another country.  Josh and I had really deep conversations with God during the 5 min. drive to get to the other ferry terminal!  But we did make it, and after a while, we did enjoy ourselves (enough), though I am sure I have another handful of grey hair because of it!

 Mateo taking a picture of Mommy and Daddy with the light thing in the background...see it all the way to the right, see it made it in! :)