Keepin Up With The L.Perry Family 2: Beijing Road...

Saturday, January 12^th: Today our guide was off so we decided to go out on an adventure on our own. It is not easy to find a taxi driver here that will let you cram 5 people into his taxi so that meant we had to take 2 taxis. We had English-speaking hotel staff write down where we wanted to go on two separate papers and we were off. I took Lilyan and Lia with me and Lance took Lorelle…and luckily we ended up in the same place, Beijing Road. We arrived after Lance and Lorelle…they were beginning to worry a bit because they saw our taxi turn a different direction. But we arrived safely and found each other quicklyJ Beijing Road is a BIG shopping area where the streets are blocked off and there are hundreds of stores, restaurants and food vendors. Some high end and some just little, hole in the wall, places. We picked up a few more souvenirs, walked around a temple (that was packed) and had lunch at Pizza Hut. The girls were sure we were going to get kicked out of the temple and/or Ch*na because Lance kept talking about Jesus really loud. We were the only American’s in there and got lots of stares…as we do most places we go. We just smile, wave and say “Hello”!! We had a good time with the girls. When we were ready to head back to the hotel, we waved down a taxi and crammed in so fast that he didn’t have time to argue about 5 people. A matter of fact we panicked a bit because somehow Lia was the last one in and had no clue how to shut the door. The taxi actually started to take off with the door openL Lance managed get it shut from the front seat and we made it safely back to our hotel. Shew!!! That is just one example of the things Lia has NO clue about. Most people in China do NOT have vehicles. Most people ride bicycles; take the subway, taxis or buses. She has been in a few vans with drivers but it was obvious she had no clue how to even shut a car door. We also had to teach her about how to cut up food, hold a sandwich or a piece of pizza. We were told she mostly ate congee before we got her. She is not being super picky for us…as a matter of fact, we are worried that she is going to get sick sometimes. She can eat a TON of food. I think some of it is…she has been told to clean her plate and some of it is…that she knows what it feels like to be hungryL You will be hungry no more sweet girl. It drives we crazy that she won’t wear her glasses…she OBVIOUSLY…NEEDS them!!! She squints a ton and is clumsy without them. I am not going to make it a battle quite yet…I want to get her into our eye doctor when we get home and make sure the prescription is correct and THEN…I am making her wear them. We are also working on person space and boundaries right now. She has so many of the institutional behaviors that the other kids came with but to see them from a 13 year old is even more difficult to deal with…Lord give us patience. I can’t wait to get her home, in my own surrounding and on a schedule. I think that will make a HUGE difference. For dinner we walked down the road to a Mexican restaurant called Tequilas (spelled differently though I think;) It was delicious!! Thank you all for your continued prayers<3