Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Steve, Allison, Sean, Megan and Ryan!
An invisible red thread connects those who are destined
to meet regardless of time, place or circumstance.
The thread may stretch or tangle, but will never break.
-An Ancient Chinese Belief
We traveled 2 hours to Heavens Lake this morning, which is a lake very high altitude lake surrounded by mountains. It takes quite a winding, twisting road bus ride up the mountain passed a few shepherd's and their flocks of lamb and goats. It was quite cool up there, but a perfectly clear morning to see the beauty. Megan did not fair to well from the narrow road and its many long drop-offs at the edge. We did not stay very long since Megan was on my shoulders most of the walking portion (up hill) and we were really feeling awkward being the only Americans and detecting everyone talking about us (I'm not sure they all approved). Despite this, its an incredible natural beauty, a grander version of Lake in the Clouds in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. (by the way, Allison and Megan get an award for not only conquering the Great Wall, but now also the sqwatty-potty's in dirty China public restrooms).
We noticed that as soon as we started driving in the van, Ryan seemed to shut down emotionally and physically (he slept nearly the entire 2 hour drive each way). We suspect he was unsure of were we were going, and if he was about to go through another change of family. We cut our trip short and decided to stay in the hotel room for the rest of the day. IT WORKED! The Ryan we had begun to know came back out of his shell, and played even more than yesterday, and not just with Steve, but with Allison and Megan too!! He has clearly grown comfortable with us in the hotel, but when we leave the hotel, he seems to become comatose.
Saturday will be another day in the room, with a couple of walks down the street to shop and eat. We discovered he knows sign language! Perhaps his foster family didn't think he could hear or speak due to the cleft lip and palette (neither one is true). It has helped him communicate to us though, and its darn cute. We are no longer speaking in Chinese to him since he doesn't seem to speak Chinese, he only makes a variety of sounds. We do see consistency and multiple syllables, so we are encouraging him to talk english. He is also completely in love with seeing himself in the mirror (it's like he hasn't seen himself before), which may help to learn the different mouth shapes to talk properly (he loves to see his tongue and inside his mouth...like he is investigating what the problem is for eating food).
Thank you all for sending great emails and kind words the past week. We look forward to wrapping things up here (we have another week to go) and we are anxious to get back to the U.S. and especially home to be with Sean and the many pets...as a bigger family!
