Post 1, boring details

The days wore on. The Gansu province makes it very difficult to get passports for the adopted children. There is a list of about 20 people who are allowed to submit the paperwork to apply for the passport. The first day (full of waiting nearly the whole day) we were unable to complete the paperwork because the person left and would not be back. So we started earlier the next day and after much waiting, were informed that he (our guide) was not on that list of people who can apply for the passport and that all of those people were busy and would not be able to help us that day. We were flying out that day, so we were quite stressed about that.
We found out later that our agency was aware that this is a common problem in that province and that they had made arrangements to get our passport completed with our guide, but it seems they changed their minds. As of yesterday, our current guide was hoping it would be here by Wednesday. We have our appointment with the U.S. consulate on Wednesday as well, then leave by train to Hong Kong on Thursday, and finally HOME on Friday. Praying that this all goes through without a hitch because I do not want to spend a day longer here than I have to!

SO that's all the boring stuff that happens. Lanzhou was full of running around the entire day and getting home late and exhausted. None of us have had time to relax or catch up on our sleep at all. Yesterday, after visiting a museum and shopping for a few groceries, we arrived at our hotel with a very sleepy, un-well feeling Tim and a cranky Chanz. Tim dropped a Nyquil and was out for the rest of the day. Chanz fell asleep around 4 and stayed that way until I forced him awake around 9 to eat. Today, Chanz is obviously refreshed and Tim feels somewhat better. We cancelled any sight-seeing for the day so we can just rest.

We are running low on money, so we've spread out what is left of our money to last us for this final week. We made sure to eat a big breakfast. I stashed fresh fruit and bottled juices in my bag to hold me over the rest of the day. One less hungry person saves money! We bought packaged noodles for the kids and have some leftover rice and noodles from yesterday, so we should be ok for today. That means we can spread today's money over the remaining days. yay! This reminds me of our first real vacation, when we took our honeymoon a year later. We had all of our money spread out for the week in plastic baggies so we wouldn't run out of money. We celebrated when we spent little money on one day so we could spread it out over the other days and splurge on dinner lol Good times..

Our fruit and noodle food stash!

Chips