Wednesday in Jiang Jin...

"On Wednesday we reconnected with our wonderful new friends at the orphanage. They are warming up to us more and more each day. Each child is beginning to smile more and desiring to be held. It is amazing the long-term impact that one-on-one attention can have on these children. If only there were more workers to help out. The best thing is for these children to be adopted into a family with the second best option to be placed in a foster care family. The director told us yesterday that they don't receive enough funding from the government to place the children in foster families. They hope to in the future. We did see a Chinese couple come to the orphanage and appear to be looking at the two boys who were there. We hope that they will be able to adopt one of these children. We met a few American friends who lived in Chongqing and they spent the afternoon and evening with us. It was great to hear about life for an American "foreigner" living in China and about working here. For dinner, we had a traditional Chongqing hotpot experience. There is a boiling pot of water in the middle of the table with two sections. One section is non-spicy, and the other section is "slap-your-mama" spicy. Many of Team Alabama ate chicken feet and duck intestines. When in Jiang Jin, do as Jiang Jin does. It was a wonderful experience."