January 10th: A different Sunday

Today we had some tours. We visited the six banyan tree temple. Nothing like our typical Sunday in church. There were many people there offering burnt incense and other offerings to their gods. We saw many statues of their gods. The temple is an interesting structure. We had a lot of attention from Grace our guide since it was just us and our new friend Laura that is here adopting.

The next stop was Chen Academy. This has much local art on display and was very interesting. We had been here on our last trip but they rotate many of the displays so much of it was new.

We then stopped at an upscale store that sold jade, porcelain, carvings etc. It was fun looking around at all the neat stuff.

We then came back to the island and ended up going around to the various shops looking for souvenirs. The shops were slow today so it made for some good bargaining.

For dinner we went out with our guide and Laura and her daughter. The Tai food was out of this world and very reasonably priced. After our 711 lunch this was a welcomed treat.

After dinner the girls went to the play room at the hotel and had so much fun. Maria did not want to leave to come back to the room.

Maria had another wonderful day. She was very loving and playful most of the day and seems to really be enjoying herself. It is fun to see how she is bonding and playing with her sisters.

Tomorrow morning we go back to have her TB Skin test read. If that is good then all our medical stuff is complete. The US will review our paperwork on Tuesday and we should take the oath with Maria on Wednesday. We are to leave here for Hong Kong on Thursday evening arriving back home on Friday evening. We are all ready to get home. Pray that her skin test is clear.