The snakes...

The snakes...  holy buckets.   I wrote in the last blogpost, that "We've been doing some landscaping (and being introduced to some new snakes!)...".  

That comment, along with a knowledge of my intense fear of snakes (and toads... and salamanders... and frogs... and spiders... and lizards... and turtles...  I think ya'll get what I'm saying!), sparked a few questions for the whole story from some friends of mine.

So after telling the story to one fella at work and emailing it to another, I figured I would turn the email into a post so everyone can laugh at my fears instead of just a select few.

Here ya go: 

So we've got some landscaping projects to do this Spring. We had been working on the front hill that curves around with the side walk from the approach to the garage to our front door.  I'd say we'd been out there a solid 5, maybe even six hours last Saturday.  

Lesley was going inside to get cleaned up so we could go to church on Saturday night and I was going to clean up all of the tools and crap we had out there.  She's standing up within the hill and we're discussing what we're going to do on Sunday when we get back out there.  She says, "Oh my!  It's a snake! A big snake!".  

I'm not exaggerating when I say it was probably 36 - 40 inches long, and fairly meaty!  

Me being the man of the house, and standing roughly 10' away from her, and well, the snake since it was slithering down the hill right next to her, so it obviously wasn't right in the head...  I lost focus.   

So me being the man, I start shouting, "Waddu-i-do? Waddu-i-do?" as it's coming my direction, you see.  

She says, "It's cold blooded so I have to take care of it", meaning that I take care of warm blooded animals and she takes care of the cold blooded.  Being a week removed from this trauma, I now get that.  However, I interpreted that in the heat of the moment to mean that it was a cold blooded killer and something HAD to be done, which is EXACTLY what I was thinking!  


She goes and gets the spade and I kid you not, when it saw her coming, it leapt, or lunged I suppose.  

Scared me bad...  REAL bad.  

So she continues the approach and take a stab at it and misses the first time. Now he's mad!  She takes a second stab and I'm thinking that due to the shape of the spade, she hit it, but it wasn't dead.  About six inches of the snake, including it's head, was sticking up and waving back and forth frantically wagging it's vicious little tongue in the process.  

She says, "Oh boy, he's really mad now!  Waddu-i-do? Waddu-i-do?".  

I grabbed the other shovel, the short handled shovel by the way, and headed over there to rescue my damsel in distress, since I was fairly confident that she had him safely pinned to the terra firma.  

I'm aiming at this wildly flailing killer just behind the head because I want one good, kill shot.  I rear back with the shovel, the short handled one, and thrust it downward with enough force to split 12" boulder cleanly in half.  I expected to see the snakes head fall, in slow motion,  lifelessly to the ground, but what we witnessed instead was a scene that would make a horror movie producer blush, and possibly even vomit.  


My shovel managed to enter the snake almost exactly where I had intended for the fatal blow to fall, however with his flailing, the blade of the shovel scraped along his "backbone" for about 5 or 6 inches, effectively skinning half of him for that distance.  

Blood is spilling, he's slowing down, I have an adrenalin rush that would rival any in history and on top of that, I feel bad.  

So, he eventually bleeds out leaving a bloodstain on the dirt, I'm not kidding. 

Lesley goes to pick him up with the steel rake and he moves!  What?!?  How can this be?  Apparently, he's not quite dead yet.  She eventually gets the body wrapped around several of the rakes tines and carries it down to the creek.  

We both settle down and she goes in to take her shower as she had planned prior to this incident.  So there I am, out there all alone, nervous as I've ever been, cleaning up tools n' such.  

That's when I spot the second one. It's smaller but it's in the exact spot that we killed what I now presume to be it's momma. This one is probably 16-18 inches long and thinner, but no doubt a cold blooded killer too.  

I go and grab the shovel, the short handled one, and head over to beast #2 so we can square off like men and determine who will emerge victorious.  

Thankfully, this one is much calmer so my approach was a little less dramatic as well.  The situation called for it.  

I rear back again with the shovel and suddenly find myself in total freak-out mode.  I stabbed it down at him with a ferocity that would have frightened the devil himself.  

Three times.  

I had too.  

You see, even though he wasn't moving much, my blind rage towards him caused me to miss the first two times.  Third time lucky though.  I severed the head about 3 inches back.  To my horror, both sides kept moving!!!  

I backed up and watched from a little safer distance.  Plus, I had no idea how many more "children" might be coming out of the den soon!  

After about 5 minutes, I went back with the steel rake and picked up the body... only it's still moving...  man!  I pick it up and get about ten feet towards the creek before it slithers off the rake again.  Pick it up, go a few more feet, snake slithers off again.  I consider if I should try to throw it off of the rake with some type of fancy spinning move but after careful, deep consideration, I decided that a move like that is simply too risky. If my fancy spin move were to go awry and the snake carcass would somehow come back at me and touch me, I would surely perish.  

So pick it back up again, go a little further, drop it, repeat.  This happens many more times before I finally make it to the creek.  

You would think the story would end here, but sadly, it does not.  

I turn the rake over, tines side down so the snake can just fall off into the tall grasses/weeds that we don't mow.  Only it WON'T FALL OFF NOW!!!  

I start to panic a bit and it was in that panic that the fancy spinning move began to sound more palatable than it had previously.  I only did about a 180 degree spin, just wanted a little momentum but not too much!  

The snake flew off the rake... about 3 inches and the tail wrapped around a branch of a 6' tall tree sapling.  So now it's hanging from the tree.  I just stood there looking at it like, "you've got to be kidding me!!", when it slithered off and fell, only to get hooked on a lower tree branch.  When it started moving off of that branch, I figured it was seeking it's last attempt to avenge it's mother's blood.  I took off for the house like a man possessed.  

Lesley picked up the head the next morning and did away with it.

The End.

More Random Hap'nins from the 'Hill

Hmmmmm... been a long time since I've posted anything! Spring time has been B.U.S.Y. to say the least. Work, landscaping, kindergarten round-up for Caleb, soccer practice and games starting up for Robby, doctors appointments, Spring break with Momma and the boys in Crystal Lake, car troubles, and so on...

All is good though, no complaints other than the days don't seem long enough sometimes.

I don't have the next China blogpost ready yet, but I was going through the March pictures folder and wanted to share a few of the good ones.

The three muskateers getting ready to cook breakfast on Saturday morning. Robby and I put our aprons on and Caleb was barking that he didn't have one, so we dug out another.  Oh sure, his looks a bit like a gown, but what can you do?

Robby "Peyton Manning" Schmitz and Caleb "Kurt Warner" Schmitz doing a little target practice with the crossbow. 

That's my boy!!!  Crazy hair-do?  Check.  Sausage? Check.  Drink? Check.  Smile that says you've got the world in your hands?  Check!  He didn't even bother to get a plate. Just ate it like a single man consuming dinner over the sink. 

One boy practicing to be a football player and the other practicing for when he's old and ready to retire with the dark socks pulled up to the knees and nary an article of clothing that matches.  That's also my boy!!!

The start of Spring Break activities. Robby had a scavenger hunt to do over SB.  The things to "collect" were stuff like, go to a museum, no tv for a day, play outside for 1 hour on 5 different days, help with yard work and other things along those same lines.

They went to a park that day too. 

Some serious focus and determination going on here!

On our way up to Crystal Lake, we stopped off in Garner to see Momma's cousin Chris, his wife Joan, and their two kiddos, Rachael and Kollin.  Caleb saw this bad boy and it was all over!  Of course, at some point, Robby saw how much fun he was having and so he had to shove Mr. C. over to the passengers seat and take control.

Robby modeling Grandpas coat that he would like to sell.  Anybody interested in a very heavy Buffalo hide coat intended for when you ride a motorcycle? Robby looks a little extra 'bad' with the Larry the Cucumber shirt under it.  That's how they know you're a real outlaw!

Robby discovered Bambi eyes.  It was a good enough performance to score him a nutty bar.

Caleb discovered the digger this past weekend.  It's cute when he wants to use it because he comes over and asks us if he can go play.  :-)   Ahhhh... the innocence.

We've been doing some landscaping (and being introduced to some new snakes!).  Robby was collecting clay chunks out of our nasty ol' yard and molding them into various different items. I believe he ended up with a seal, elephant, bowl and a star.

Here's the clay figures after being fired in our 'kiln'  (a.k.a. oven).  Tonight he was dead-set on going to get paints so that he can paint these before putting them up on a shelf somewhere.

Caleb going for a drive in the dumptruck!  And, if there's any doubt with that expression on his face, he was quite proud of his cleverness.

Here's Robby sanding wood for a boat that we're building for when we set up the swimming pool later on in the summer.  He is bent on getting this thing done as soon as possible even though the pool likely won't go up for another two months.  We've been having fun building it and it's better than sitting in front of the tv, by a long shot!

The little used swing set has been seeing a little more use lately.  That's a good thing as it's been woefully neglected for a good portion of it's existence.

That's all she wrote for now.  I hope to have up the next China post in a day or two.

Notes from Up North

Well, the boys and I have been in Crystal Lake for Spring Break visiting grandma and grandpa.  Overall we have had a good time and I thought I would share a glimpse of our week.  Below we are at the lake.  The snow geese were back on the lake and we were checking them out.  Unfortunately when we went back down to the lake there were only a few left on the lake.

One of the highlights of the week was Robby FINALLY lost his 3rd tooth.  Grandpa pulled it out with a pair of pliers.  I was hoping that he would wait until we got home to lose it but obviously that didn't happen.  The tooth fairy gave him a $2 bill.  The Crystal Lake tooth fairy is a bit more generous than the PH tooth fairy. 

Here is everyone humoring me with a picture. 

Robby's favorite activity of the week has been playing basketball. They found an old ball (that they initially thought was a beehive) that we have been playing with. Robby is mad at the rain and thinks we should play anyway. He doesn't understand getting old...



I don't know what to say about the golf cart.  Robby is thrilled that his legs are long enough to reach the pedals.  Grandma drove it off their property for the first time (and she did stellar BTW).  It is by far the preferred method of transportation. 

Everyone has been having a great time.  Robby and Caleb have been going to the Senior Center each morning for cookies.  Rob has also been studying the state flags determining which ones are the easiest to make (TX and AL) and which are the most difficult to make (TBD).  We also got a nice lesson on stamps from Postmaster Lisa. 

Time to return home tomorrow and see our puppy who we understand is really missing us and of course Baba.  See you guys soon.

China - Part 14 Caleb's finding spot

So here we are.  The spot where our boy was left by his biological parent(s).  This was very exciting and sort of nerve wrecking all at the same time. I suppose if it were the other way around, we wouldn't have gone!

Please visit the older post for some additional details.

This was late in the day when we headed back out after the Puppet Palace tour and lunch.  On the way home from lunch, we visited the hospital where little Levi was found. He was left down in the parking ramp area of the hospital and we went down the steps from the main area to find that.  asked Mom and Dad if they wanted me to take a photo of them there with Levi and they declined.  I can understand...  Here is that hospital:

 

This is in the lobby of the hospital as you can see myself and Caleb off to the left of the photo with Echo, our guide, up at the desk inquiring about anything that anybody might know about Levi. We went down into the parking garage but even before we got there, I noticed rat traps about the size of the average American bread box.  Don't know how big that is? Picture a loaf of bread from the store and envision it just slightly bigger!  Thems some big rats!

Here is me and the boys standing on the side of a very, very cold highway while Echo talks to the "chicken man".  That's our bus behind us. Little did we know that the bus was going to unexpectedly drive away only seconds after this very cold picture was taken.

This is only moments later.  Chicken man is still talking to Echo as you can see their shadows in the bottom left of the photo, but the bus is gone.  We had no idea why it left with some of our people still on it.

This photo was taken after we walked up the hill from the 4-lane highway to the place where the chicken man had come from.  He told Echo that there was a policeman up there who may have information about little Calebs situation or at the very least, the tool booth.  Speaking of the toll booth, that yellow and black thingy-ma-gig over the highway was where the toll booth was formally located.

Here is a better shot of it.  This is the only thing that was left of where our precious little boy was found.  I mentioned in the previous post on this subject that I find it fitting that our little dude found a family at roughly the same time his drop off/finding spot was torn down.  Oh, and the bus just went further up the road and turned around so that the 6 of us out walking did not have to go back across 4 lanes of traffic.

I've looked at aerial maps of Changchun and tried to figure out where the airport, orphanage and Calebs finding spot were located.  I have failed. Miserably.  The only thing I can say for sure is that we crossed this river, whatever it was.  Honestly, it was too cold to truly care.

And just in case anyone should not believe me about how poor of an area that we drove to and from getting to Calebs finding spot, this was taken not too far away from the dude on the bicycle with the big screen tv.  It was not an isolated place either!

That's all the photos we have from this day.  We visited little Kai's finding spot in the train station after Calebs but we were rushed and I"m not sure if I've mentioned the fact that it was cold... brutally cold.  I was carrying Caleb most of the time which surely puts a damper on taking photos, so it is what it is.  After all, the spot within the train station had been remodeled so it looked nothing like it did when he was left/found.

That's all for now. 

Just another Saturday?

Good evening.

This post is being typed off the cuff.  What do I mean by that?  It will most likely be disjointed and not include all of the details that I set out to include originally...  whatever.  I hope it can spawn some conversation and more importantly, action.

My hope is not to offend anyone, but rather to offer a post to think, to ask questions, be it of yourself, me, God or a local preacher man or whatever.  If I do offend anyone, I pray that it's not because of an idea that I've poorly conveyed, but rather an area of your life where you KNOW IN YOUR HEART you can do better.

This may end up being quite long... I really have no idea at this point. Let's go...

I'm home alone tonight and had planned to play guitar, and quite loudly, but still have not gotten around to that for various reasons and that's mostly why I'm writing this.  It's 9pm and I should be heading to bed but something is bothering me...

This weekend, Saturday March 17th, Sunday, March 18th, saw me and my family, my beautiful and gorgeous bride Lesley and our two sons Robby and Caleb, heading up North to Grandma and Grandpa's house.  It's spring break from school so Momma and the boys are going to to stay up there until Friday when my mother-in-law will return them to me next Friday as she's coming down for a separate event.

We had an open invite via facebook to see my cousins' husbands band play at a bar in Manly, Iowa.  Roughly a 1/2 hour from the in-laws house. We decided that we would leave our house late Saturday morning after my Bible study and breakfast at home to stop at Momma's cousins house to let the kids get together and play and the adults to have a little catch-up time. We would then proceed to G'ma & G'pa's house for supper and head out sometime later for the metropolis known as Manly, Iowa.

We executed that plan to a 'T', as they say.  On our path North from Pleasant Hill, we started listening to a book on cd called, Erasing Hell, by Francis Chan & Preston Sprinkle.  The subtitle of the book is "what God said about eternity, and the things we've made up".

I will say that after the first 15 minutes of the book, rougly speaking, I wasn't sure I wanted to proceed, but knew we had to and deep down, really wanted to.

We did.

Again, some clarity.  I'm not going get into the guts of this book (you should for yourselves!!) but rather a series of events that rattled me a bit and in turn, influenced my current typing/ramblings.

So we're listening to disc one and Preston Sprinkle, one of the authors who is also reading this book for the recording, is discussing various different authors' perceptions of hell, and says that "A happier portrait of hell was painted by the band AC/DC, who said that “hell ain’t a bad place to be”–it’s where all our friends are.".

 It's clear at this point that neither Chan nor Spencer is a big AC/DC fan. I believe the song that they're truly trying to refer to is "Highway To Hell", but that's splitting hairs.

Regardless of what song it is, the band is the same and so is the message.  The song Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be is from the album Let There Be Rock. This was the fourth non-KISS album that I purchased.  You see, I was a huge KISS fan back in 1982 when I purchased Def Leppard's High N' Dry album as my first non-KISS record.  My second non-KISS record was Ozzy Osbournes Diary Of A Madman only a couple of months before the plane crash that would claim guitarist Randy Rhoads' life.  The fourth non-KISS album that I purchased with my paper route money was AC/DC's Let There Be Rock, which contained the song Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be.

To be 100% honest and forthcoming, I was born and raised Catholic, though I never took any of it too seriously (religion in general, that is, not just Catholicism).  That being said, I've always had a little bit of a nagging feeling that I shouldn't be listening to that song, or songs like it.  I argued, to myself mostly, that lyrics themselves weren't harmful if you had the proper upbringing.  After all, it was the music that I was listening too, not the lyrics.

That song, Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be, seems to be mostly about a woman of ill repute who isn't treating a man, of equal, uhhh... "repute", as he wishes to be treated.  I think the "artist" is referring more to a man-made "hell on earth" as opposed to a post-life destination for punishment.

Now the song Highway To Hell is a different story altogether.  I believe this is actually the song that the authors are referring too. Here the singer and chief lyricist, Bon Scott, says, "Going down, party time, my friends are gonna be there too... I'm on the highway to hell".

A small discrepency to be sure and the point is not lost.  Now, back to the point.

We go to see the band play on Saturday night.  We arrive at the bar at an hour when we would normally be getting ready for bed.  It was roughly 8:30pm.  There were plenty of people standing outside of the The Thirsty Dog, as there is no smoking in the bars now. We walk up and pay our cover charge, proceed inside and find a lone barstool where we will set up shop for the next 3+ hours of our lives.

When my cousin and her husband, a guitarist in the band that we are going to see, spot us, we have a brief discussion and then part ways for the opening band.  After the opening band does their thing, we convene briefly again and I ask what kind of stuff they're set list consist of?

He invites me back to see a beautiful Paul Reed Smith guitar that my cousin (his wife) got him for a birthday present and shows me the set list. To my surprise and utter disbelief, the song, Hell Ain't A Bad Place To Be, is in the second set!!

I have not heard this song in a good many years and now I've heard it brought up in a book where I'm attempting to advance my knowledge of the Bible, and a band I'm going to see on St. Patty's day (talk about irony!!!) and it occurs on the same day...

I'm dumbfounded, to say the least.

Not only am I offended by the language used by the bands on stage and by the actions of some of the folks witnessing the band, I am reminded, quite pointedly, of my own past.  Playing in these types of bands and participating in this type of lifestyle.  The desire to live this kind of life.  The thinking that all of this crap was in some way "cool".

I've introduced many people to this kind of music (and many others!) and defended it vehemently while being either embarrassed or ashamed to introduce people to Jesus, the gospel or the Bible in general.

I suck. I am ashamed...  to tears.

The dichotomy of this past Saturday was, and still is, staggering and as I do not really believe in coincidence, a punch in my pretty little face.  (ahem...)

The message that my beautiful and gorgeous bride has written on our bulletin board is like a flashing beacon everyday as I walk by it, "Imagine what you want your kids to become  -  be that".


As a Christian, I've got work to do.  We all do. In light of my recent post, Mortality, time is of the essence.

The Bible is our blueprint for life.

The next election is not important.  Gas prices are not the most compelling issue in our lives. Which college we did/did not go to bears no importance. Whether or not the U.S.A. is involved in the U.N. is not important. Who wins the mis-named Superbowl or World Series is surely not important.  What we eat for supper tomorrow night is not important.  What kind of car we drive is not important. What kind of guitar/amp I play is not important.  Where we live is not important. What style of music we play in church is not important.  What we do for a living or where we work is not important.

Before I worry about any of this other stuff, most of which should be considered blessings, I hereby pledge to immerse myself in the Word of God and encourage you all to do the same.

I encourage questions, feedback (positive or negative), encouragement, or whatever else.

We are lost.  Time is of the essence.

China - Part 14 The Orphanage In Changchun

Today, we're going to go on a tour of the orphanage. Unfortunately, some curious little fingers had touched the actual lens of the camera and we took a good number of photos before noticing that "enhancement".

Regardless of the cloudiness in most of the photos, there are some good shots and a particularly good memory from this tour too.

On the drive to the orphanage, we drove thru some of the poorest and run down areas that I think I have ever seen. I began noticing that the buildings were appearing more dilapidated the further we drove.  The apartment buildings were older and had broken windows. Buildings were boarded up.  Some appeared to be bombed out buildings like what you would see in movies or photos after an area gets shelled.  Roofs were caved in and buildings deserted.  The roads were full of huge pot holes and areas of pavement that had been torn up for some type of repair, were not repaved but rather just filled back in with rock.  Real close to the orphanage were people living in essentially tin sheds made up of discarded materials, possibly stripped out of some of the abandoned buildings.  There were people burning cornstalks for heat in thier little huts!

Right by the driveway entrance for the orphanage, there was an old military truck sitting nose to nose with another very old vehicle.  The military truck had been there so long that the rubber had literally rotted completely off of the rims and what remained of it was laying on the concrete.

Unfortunately, I was so taken aback by the conditions around this area that I didn't take any pictures! I was so amazed by what we were seeing that it didn't even cross my mind to snap photos!

I had a thought later on that this area was perhaps old enough to have been rendered unusable after World War II and the occupation of China by Japan, explaining both the bombed out looking buildings as well as the old military truck.  Since the orphanages there are government entities, it would also help to explain why it was built in such an area because I would guess that land would be CHEAP!!

I'm not sure, nor convinced of any of that WWII stuff, but it is logical to me and I think it would be to you too if you saw the area.

So as we turned into the driveway just past the old truck, we drove down this cattle path...  okay, it really wasn't a cattle path but it wasn't much better than one either. It was a long dirt path that was incredibly bumpy. Then when you finally hit pavement, there is about the most hi-tech security gate that I've encountered. It's an accordion style metal folding gate with digital displays/sensors on the side opposite of the guards shack.  There is a photo of it at the Changchun Child Welfare Institute webpage.

Once we went thru that gate, we were in the parking lot shown in this first photo.

So why are we parked so far away from the building on a cold morning when there were no other vehicles in the lot? Who knows...  This building is HUGE and we saw only a little bit of it so that fact has caused me great wonder of just how many kids are in there!?!?

That's the orphanage director who was also at the federal building on the day we got Mr. Caleb.  That's our guide Echo to his right.  We gave them our gifts that we had purchased for them at this point.

A wide view of the main entry way/atrium area.  Our tour started with us going down that hallway to the left of the elevators.

Another shot of the atrium area and you can see the larger playground thru the windows and can also get a glimpse of how far back the building goes with the blue wall on the left of the photograph.

Obviously the playground but you can see the building on both sides of this photo. I'm guessing our tour covered about 3% of the overall building. It can get a little overwhelming when you think of the kiddos that are still in there waiting for a family.

Our first stop on the tour was simply a play room.  Looks pretty much like a day-care center in the U.S.A., does it not?!

Same room...

I believe that this was an actual exercise room for the kiddos.  I think they said something about doing physical therapy for certain types of kids too.

Same room...

I had originally wrote in a post here, that Caleb got a little clingy and didn't want me to put him down. I present this photograph as exhibit A. :-)  That is a HAPPY daddy in this picture!

 

This is obviously one of many bedrooms.  There were beds on the other side of the room too.  That door behind the woman there is a big bathroom that had both squatty potties and regular toilets as well.

This was the view out of the East facing window of the bedroom above and below this shot.  I had to take this photo of the big bad nuclear plant.  Changchun is home to several nuclear plants and we drove by a few of them on our way to the hotel from the airport.

This a shot of the beds on the other side of that same bedroom.  When we left this room, we walked through that bathroom that I described above and went through a smaller room where the keep the kiddos with cerebal palsey (I haven't a clue how to spell that nor the desire to look it up... deal with it.).  Immediately upon entering that room, I glanced down and there was this crippled little girl laying there in a somewhat contorted position.  I said to her, "Ni hao." and she flashed me the biggest and brightest smile that you can imagine.  It broke my heart to leave her there knowing that she'll likely never get family hugs like little Caleb now enjoys so much.  I will not/cannot forget that little face...

This photo and the next one are of some art that the kids had done.  One of their students won some awards for their drawings, which were quite good.

Perhaps the ones on the blue?

Finally!  The music room. Shakers, tamborines, bongos, triangles and a xylophone.  The usual suspects.

Mic stand, pa speaker, stereo and computer.  Sounds like a recording studio!

That guitar in the corner is the ONLY axe that I saw for 19 days!!  I went  over to fondle it only to discover that the strings were about 3/4 inch off of the neck.  Very unplayable and I was tempted to go buy them a new one that the kids could actually play.  Oh sure, I had not seen any guitars to buy for myself much less anybody else, but I did have the thought... that's what counts, right?  RIGHT?

This here fancy contraption is a zither, as I had written about previously here. Not sure about tuning this beast but I liked the sound of these bad boys, especially paired up with a piano!

Here's some little kiddos having their lunch.  They saw us and got all excited and started saying something to their teachers/lunch handlers.  Echo told us that they were asking for chocolate in Chinese since they saw the Americans on the tour!  That's golden!  There were some older handicapped kids that were eating at a different table.  Sad to watch, sad to remember.

This photo made it onto the blog in a previous post, but it's going to make it again because I like it!  This was the final stop on our tour of the orphanage.  They had these big chairs around the outside of the room and they led us into this room to ask any questions we might have and to give us a gift.  That gift is the last photo in this post.

This is another shot of that same room.

This is the gift that they gave us. It's our little monster-dude with his name in Chinese, his birthdate, and photo in front of the orphanage.  Oddly enough, the metal gate that I was raving about earlier in this post is what is right behind his head on this. That big thing off to the left side of his head is part of the security gate.  Another thing that I just noticed about this is all of the greenery immediately behind him is not real. That's where the dirt road leading up to this place is.  Oh well, I still like this gift and it sits out in the main area of our house so people can ask about it.

That's about all for this post.

As always, thanks for reading!