Sunday, September 12, 2010

Red Couch Pictures

Today was a relaxed day for us.  We pray your Sunday goes well.  I will keep the entry short today.  We had our usual breakfast and then stepped out to the street to drop our laundry at one of the local shops for cleaning.  We ventured into two sourvenir shops and Melissa promised both staffs that she would be back later to make purchases.  We then intended to walk to another local hotel to connect with friends but ended up not doing so because of pouring rain.  We instead returned to the playroom at our hotel and let Mack spend some energy.  Mack then took a long nap, Melissa did some reading, and I went to ride in the gym.  I do not know why, but the recreation center attendant offered to get me proper clothing--I guess she had not seen a man exercise in aged sweat pants and a button down shirt.  I thought I looked sophisticated--she did not seem amused.  Around 4:30 all of the adoptive families in our group gathered for the customary "Red Couch Pictures", which take place, you guessed it, on a red couch.  First they do individual families, snapped by everyone else in the group, then they do all the families at once, snapped with every family's camera, and then they do just the adopted children, snapped by everyone in the group.  You can imagine the shear chaos, the sense of impending doom, and the tears of agony  (this was just from the parents--the kids were fine).  Quite a scene--with curious Asian onlookers also stopping to take photos of all the madness.  From there, we headed to a Thai restaurant called The Cow and Bridge--excellent.  My only disappointment here is that my oldest brother tells me Thai food is most wonderful when followed with coconut ice cream.  Sadly, that was one flavor they did not offer.  We headed back to the hotel, with Melissa and Mack visiting with half of the Wong family in the playroom while I played squash with the other half of their family. We are now settled into bed.  Have a great day.
Dave

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