today we got to go to Jun's town of Anyang,  where she has lived since being found 7yrs ago.  we had to apply for her passport.   we should receive them on friday before we leavve for Guangzhou Anyang is where the An in her name comes from,  An XiangJun    for years they have labeled the orphans by naming them after the city they are foundin,   but they have recently changedc that rule (i hope its true)  as in china name is everything and An is not a "name"  so automatically when grown it labels her an orphan,   so it stigmatizes the kids by labeling them.    they are now supposed to be using "real" names

  i kind of wish we could have gone to the orphanage after having to drive all that way but after asking 2x  and not getting an answer i gave up.   thought maybe its for the best.  

for those who know i am the carseat crazy mom :-)   they don't use them here let alone SEATBELTS!!!!    i am wearing thin on kids moving around thinking they can walk, stand etc in a moving vehicle.    breathe   :-)    

   i think these are rice fields,   the further we got from zhengzhou the more farmland we saw. 

the kids are all doing good,   Eisa complains that she doesn't want to sit near her but is really being helpful with her.   kestrel has stepped up alot too, 

because of her needs  Jun has spent 7yrs in the "younger baby" room,  so we see lots of fun baby behaviors,  screeching when she doesn't like something,  etc    but she's smart as a whip,   she's learning the word  NO  :-)  or i am learning bu xing!    gavin seems a little oblivious to her but gage likes to make her smile/laugh 

after calling her Jun for 10mo and even though we named her Meisa,    (Maysa)  and they called her XiangJun,   we've settled on Jun     she's starting to answer to it so i think it is sticking.  if  at a later time she wants something else that's fine but i think she'll always be Jun to us. 

tons of new buildings being built in Anyang,  i didn't realize it was such a growing? city    Kaye were these here last june??  


ok so now for the highlight of our trip,  1hr into the return drive i notice we are swerving more than the ride up (front end seemed loose :-)    everyone is napping so i am watching and the driver's eyes are CLOSING!!!!   yes he's nodding off,  rubbing his head, face and nodding again.  i ask another mom to watch (in case its my paranoia)   and NOPE he's nodding off.    so    we calll our guide who calls him and that works for 10min.   so we tell him to pull off and he points and nods NO going straight!   we finally spot a rest area and tell him GET OFF      got him a sprite and it wasn't long before we hit heavy traffic and it got him alert.    SCARY