Chicago Trip: Day 2

Saturday morning we woke up way too early. We set the alarm on our travel clock for 6am, but totally forgot about the time zone difference. Our 6am wake up was really a 5am wake up on Chicago's Central Time. Kevin and I were eager to have another hour of sleep, but Hannah disagreed and kept us up another hour as we tried to rest. About 5:45am I'd had enough of the "Ah! Ah! Ma ma ma ma ma!!!" and decided to start our day.

While parking our car in Chinatown and getting out the stroller, Kevin said, "Sarah, there's some blonde lady waving at me." How funny! Someone knew who Kevin was from this blog but he had no idea who she was. Of course, I knew who it was, and was so happy to meet up with another mama I'd been e-mailing with for over two years.

We met up with Mary and her parents (how did I not get any photos of the girls together???) in Chinatown and picked out some rolls at a Chinese bakery for breakfast. Mary ran around with a roll in her hand and told us all about what sounds different animals made. We checked out a few stores before heading the strollers toward the park where the races were. The girls briefly held hands while we pushed them in their strollers. Too cute!

While waiting for a train to pass to get into the park, a woman turned around and grinned and said, "Oh my! It's Hannah Claire! I read your blog!" I laughed so hard. How funny! So neat to meet another family with a child from St. Lucy's in Taiwan. We met up with several families with children from China and Taiwan at the park and had a great time. So much fun that I didn't even go down to the river to watch any races. I did watch some Chinese dancing and listen to a children's story about dragonboat races. Here's an interesting link about dragonboat racing if you'd like to know more about it.

Several Taiwan adoptive families went out to lunch together at a Lao Beijing. We sat at a big table with two other families with children that lived with Hannah at the orphanage in Taiwan. So strange to think that seven months ago these three children slept in the same room together every night... and here they are, together on the opposite side of the world, living within a four hour car ride of eachother. Hannah made a friend with another daddy and held his hand during dinner, placing bits of discarded dan dan noodles in his palm every once in awhile. Hard to decided whether to be embarrassed or find her willingness to share comical.

This pic is for Lisa, a blogger that always leaves the sweetest comments.
It was hard to get our little treasurers to sit still! I think Lisa would agree that
The LORD has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy! - Psalm 126:3


After naps we met back up with some very special friends. We first met up with this family in Taipei on December 22, 2008. They had just been united with their son and we could be meeting our daughter a week later. Oh, how this little cutie warms my heart and has gotten so big over the last seven months! We enjoyed our children, the fountains, and "the bean" together in Millennium Park before finding a deli for dinner. I love the hand holding!


I love taking pictures at the bean. If I could go on a day that wasn't so busy and I didn't have a baby in tow... I'd bring some Windex, a cloth, and play around with my camera for an hour or more.




I'm posting more photographs at the bean HERE and one of Hannah in the gardens HERE.

What a day!