OK first off I want to clarify something… We like your smiley faces. It was not YOUR smiley faces; it was the random ones that pop-up in our posts that we did not put there. Maybe you all cannot see them, but when we log in to our site to check the posts we wrote, random smiley faces are in the text that we did not put there! I was saying I didn’t like those…Many people have said sorry for their smiley faces- knock it off you all, we like them!!!!

            So on to the good stuff.

            We left this morning for Ha Long Bay. We thought it was a couple of hours away, but it was 4 hours there, we stayed for 4 hours, then 4 hours back! AHH, it was beautiful beyond words, but 6 families with 6 children, we came home and dropped in bed!

            Ha laceName w:st="on">LonglaceName> laceType w:st="on">BaylaceType> is a beautiful area where the mountains and rocks jet out up from the ocean. The schools, houses and markets float between the rocks. It is only like 45 minutes from China, so there was a Chinese influence in the décor. When we arrived we took a private boat tour of the bay and stopped off and went on a cave tour. They served us an excellent seafood lunch and we got to look at pearls harvested from the bay. It was beautiful and the weather was perfect. I sat on the top of the boat and soaked in the sun and the sound of the water rushing by. It was a great time to see what the Lord has made in the earth.

            Hanoi is soooo different than anywhere we have been so far. They are social with one another but not as friendly with us. We had become accustom to being fussed over and our children being ohhed over, but they are busy and in there own world. Much like Americans. Not taking time to stop and talk, kiss on the babies or ask where we are from. It went from over 100 times a day to maybe like 5 times a day. Our character has changed being here and seeing the faults of our American lifestyles. Nothing bad, we are just not as friendly of a place as I thought (compared to here.) I know in America they say we (and the south) are the friendliest places in the US… someone from up north would croke over and die with the lack of personal space here.

            The other difference between here and home is the cleanliness. We sterilize the bottles in the US and here I don’t think Avi Joy’s bottle at the orphanage was ever even washed. I had to lean out the window of the bus today, bottle in one hand, bottle of water in the other just to rinse it out before I fed her, and she’s doing fine. So do I need to get a bottle sterilizer when I get home, or is that just an American thing of obsessive cleaning? I know this sounds harsh and I love being clean, its just not important here. Yes diseases go along with this ‘lack of education on cleanliness’, but there are millions of people here carving their veggies on the streets, drinking rain water and not using hand-sanitizer-to-go and they live on happily.

            We forget (us included) how richly we are blessed. We have doctors, churches, jobs, houses. I wish I could say these things are normal in 3^rd world communist countries, but they are not. If you want to know more about this, I challenge you to go on a mission trip.

            Wow, I am in a mood today!  : ) I am sure I will flack from this email. We are all doing wonderful despite the soap-box.

            Please pray we get our exit interview this week. See you all soon.