Guangzhou Zoo

The big activity of the day was going to the Guangzhou Zoo. I'm not sure that I have mentioned this before but it is really hot here. I'm talking a film of wet and beads of sweat at all times. That is what 94 degrees and 97% humidity feels like.

John loved the zoo and was terrified all at one time. The zoo was really nice. They had tons of animals, lots of exhibits and nice places for the animals to live. The thing I really liked was that if they had one animal, they most likely had many of the same breed. I have never seen so many porcupines in one place - and the smell - whew! The pandas were hamming it up for the audience too and one even did a summersault. The only thing that I didn't like was the heat.

John didn't completely unlike me today. There were actually long periods of time where we were having so much fun together.  This cutie has the funnest laugh. He is such a cute kid, and we really adore him. We have had him for over a week now, and we feel really grateful. 

I saw at least 9 new families in our hotel today who have adopted. I've said it before but I really love meeting all of these wonderful people.

I learned today that there are 96 consulate visits per week for adopted kids. That is just under 5,000 children a year who are adopted into the US. We have also seen a lot of people from Spain adopting. If you want a second child in China you have to pay three years of salary. And that is not your own salary, but the average salary made in the city where you live. So if someone in Guangzhou wants to have a second child, it would be nearly impossible to pay the fines. You can tell that there is a lot of money in this part of China. It is cheaper to have more children in the country. So there are families with up to three children that we have seen.

We ate at the same restaurant we ate at last night. I think that will become a nightly routine. They even recognized us tonight when we came in. I'd like to say that we are "blending" with the locals, but that is impossible. We stick out like sore thumbs here, and I'm ok with that. We like this restaurant and tonight's dinner came to $5.