Jetlag day (day 2)

Today was jet lag day.  We're just trying to get our bearings.  I thought that we'd all sleep great last night since we were so exhausted and sleep deprived.  Well, Erik did...the rest of us were struggling.  I woke up before it was even midnight and couldn't get back to sleep for hours.  I had even taken a Unisom.  Once we drug ourselves out of bed in the morning around 6:30 when Ethan decided it was time to be up for good, we went down to the breakfast buffet in our hotel.  We stuck with safe, somewhat familiar foods but we'll get more adventurous later.  Then, we headed out.  Right behind our hotel is Nanjing Road, which is the main shopping street in Shanghai.  It was really fun this morning because it wasn't very busy yet and we could just wander around.  There were a lot of different groups of people with different music just dancing in the middle of the road.  I don't know if you knew this but we are celebrities in Shanghai.  Yep, people take our pictures and come up to talk to us, even though we don't know Mandarin and they don't know English, all the time.  Okay, it happens to all white people here, especially if you happen to be blonde.  They love the kids.  It's really crazy.  This one woman came up and was so excited about the kids that she ended up grabbing the stroller away from Erik saying, "It's okay!" and posed with the kids as her husband took a picture.  We went back to Nanjing Road this evening and it was much, much busier.  We made a spectacle of ourselves by posing with some guy dressed up as a bear and having Erik take a picture.  You would not believe the crowd we drew, all flashing away at us like we are famous.  It's crazy!

After coming back to the hotel to rest a bit, we went to this park nearby called People's Park.  It was really pretty and there are even a bunch of carnival rides.  We had our first split pants experience there.  Split pants are these pants that they use on little kids.  Rather than wearing diapers, the pants have a split down the center of them so if a child needs to go to the bathroom, they just go, no matter where they are.   We were following this path to find a "waterfall" and as we rounded a corner, there was a mom holding her baby and he was just spraying away, right towards us.  This happened to be where the waterfall, which ended up just being a trickle of water on some rocks, was.  We pointed it out to Ella and took off. 

Shanghai, from our room

Ella and Ethan's biggest fan

 People's Park

Nanjing Road- our hotel is the tan building right behind the Olympus sign

Making a spectacle of ourselves.  You can tell what I'm thinking, "Erik, hurry up and take the freaking picture!"

This was our last day as a family of four!  It is only 11 1/2 hours until we get Liana!  I can't believe this day has finally come!  It has always felt like a dream that might not come true but our day is finally here!!  Whoa there on all the exclamation points.  I'll try to calm it down. :-) Our guide is picking us up at 9 and we are supposed to meet Liana at 9:30.  We found out tonight that we actually get to get her at her orphanage, which isn't what they usually do.  We're really excited about this!  We really wanted a chance to see where she has lived for the past 2 years.  11 1/2 hours...I better try and get some sleep!