First day in Shanghai

In Shanghai today.  We met a Chinese social worker named Ada early today (Saturday) who will meet us Monday morning and take us to get Abe.  She told us what to expect about meeting him and his primary caretaker from the orphanage and recommended questions to ask that person.  Ada will spend time with us Monday and Tuesday to guide us through some paperwork and official business.  She told us that the first 24 hours are for us to decide if we will keep him.  I understand this being an official practice but can't imagine the possibility of not bringing home this boy that we have been thinking about daily for the last seven months! 

We also spent a little time sightseeing today with another guide, a young lady named Keiko (key-ko).  Shanghai is so enormous it is beyond comprehension.  There are 33 million people here, making it 3 times the size of New York City, and 33 times the size of Birmingham.  From our hotel window we can see 18 high rise apartment buildings, and there are thousands like them across the city. 

The fun part of today was after Keiko left us and we wandered around on our own.  We ate a local favorite for supper: dumplings full of meat and hot soup (I have no idea how they get hot soup into a dumpling).  We tried to manage them with chopsticks, frequently dropping them with a splash into the soup that had already run out into the bowl. 
When we were nearly finished we realized all the Chinese patrons around us were using large spoons to hold the dumplings while they ate them.  Also, a kind server brought us a huge stack of napkins.  We felt like amateurs.  Or messy toddlers.  We had a good laugh at ourselves.

Please pray for us that tomorrow, Sunday, we will be able to rest well and be prepared for any challenges that come on Monday when we get Abe. Pray for him as he spends his last day in the place that has been his home for almost four years, that he will have a calm and peaceful mind and be ready to meet us and leave the orphanage.