Heavenly Lake

Well, we woke up with news of the terrorist plot that was stopped in the UK - which didn't make us feel very comfortable and will make returning to the US a little less convenient. We left the hotel at 9:30 and were told that it would take 1 1/2 hours to get to Heavenly Lake. Well, there is 1 1/2 and then there is 4 hours later by the time we actually got to Heavenly Lake. We drove through some of the Gobi Desert which was very interesting it is mountainous but totally barren. Dong said there is also a desert that is called the shifting sand that is of course uninhabitable and we actually saw wild camels off to the left of the free way. I have never seen wild camels before.

Heavenly Lake is beyond beautiful. We took our van as far as we could drive, bought tickets for a private bus for another trip and then rode what was like a large golf cart the rest of the way. It is very steep, but looks like what you see on postcards of beautiful cloud shrouded lakes. We bought tickets and rode on a glassed in boat around the lake. We stopped at a religious site that was 800 years old. People got off, other people got on and we continued on.

Jie is now very comfortable with our family and also enjoys our guide, Dong and the driver. The driver Mr. Shen is wonderful with children and had tried to calm her down when she was so upset. He plays with the kids, tickles and just laughs with them. Dong is very young but is very good - he had to train an added two years to be able to be a guide for adoptions because of all the extra paperwork and working with all of the officials.

Jie is quite a flirt with anyone, and entertains herself easily with anything. She was playing with two napkins for probably 15 minutes until they fell apart. She found a small deck of cards, Slap jack and she has sorted, piled, and put them together and apart all day. She is very attached to the baby doll that we sent her and until today has not seperated from it. Today for the first time she left the room without it and didn't even glance back. She is very attached to me and so I do all of the holding and she likes to play with Nathan although she can reduce him to tears fairly easily. She does push a little and she seems to spit at people she doesn't want near her. I have already put a foot down on that one. She seems to like a firm hand - I will tell her no and she will obey me. She is very smart and is going to be a challenge to keep things away from her. She opens anything, pushes buttons, and is quite in to everything. The one thing she does that worries me is she will wander off at times. Most times she will be right at my side but twice today she went right up to different tables and started talking to people. We are going to have to be very vigilant.

We leave for Guangzhou tomorrow at 4:40 but have to check out at 12:00 and so will go to the park that we went to the first day and take some pictures. It won't be so much fun because the morning people will be gone but maybe the pictures will make sense of what I have written even though we still can't seem to post pictures.

We are ready to get to Guangzhou just because it is a little more Western and it is easier to get your message through but we have enjoyed out trip here. There are many different people here. Urumqi is part of what use to be the Silk Road and so there are Kazahstans and Russians and many different Chinese groups and a large group of Chinese Muslims. They look different than the other Chinese. I asked Dong who they were and he said they were the Chinese Muslims called Uighur here. There eyes are different and Dong also said there foreheads and brow are different. Anyway, it has been interesting. People here have asked if we were Russian or British and they can't get over the kids. Several people in the lobby came up to Dong this morning and said they both looked like angels as they were both very beautiful. Nathan gets the most attention, I suppose because he is a boy but everyone stares at Jie also. Gotta close, Love, Mama