Ready, Set — Opal and Lola

Molly dropped off the girls' passports along with their visa stamps so we are happy. We leave the hotel at 6 am for an 8:30 flight ot Beijjing, then a four hour layover (deep intake of breath) and then a 4pm flight to Chicago, arriving home by around 4pm the same day (exhahle).

Today was spent giving the girls breakfast, then snacks, then a nap, then lunch, then an outing, then snacks and soon dinner. They are petite yet ravenous and have gained just under two pounds in the time we've had them - Lola was 20 lbs last week and Opal 17.5, their little faces are filling out. I know the foster family gave the girls bottles with formula mixed with sugar which is common here, and they told me they like cake and crackers and flour-based food, that's about it. Because my questions were going through a translator months ago via emails, the information was sparse and I didn't ask too many details because I knew we'd figure it out as we got to know them. I thought we'd have some picky eaters on our hands but that is definitely not the case. They will eat anything and everything, almost. At the buffet here in the mornings - buffets in the hotel are just...easy - and at lunchtime we've had fun choosing things to see if they'll eat them and often they do: dumplings with vegetables and pork, brown noodles with leeks, any kind of congee though they'll pick the seafood out of that one, beef, seafood, all yogurts. French toast, pancakes, scrambled eggs. There's this yogurt drink they go crazy for and I'm going to have to find it somewhere at home. Lola has more of a sweet tooth than Lola but it turns out they start flapping their hands and shaking their little bodies if you give them cheesecake - they can't get enough. `They also love hot water, tea, and are not disgusted by my black coffee - I did let them taste it becase they were following me with it and yelling at me for it so I thought okay, I'll give you what you're asking for so you stop. The clamoring for coffee hasn't stopped but it's slowed so I think they'll soon be weaned of their breakfast coffee and cigarette habit.

Today we chose The Children and Kids Mart over the museum that is a tomb from the Han Dynasty because we can see the future and a 4 hour layover means we better have a stroller. Dead guy is dead but the living need a stroller tomorrow. Double strollers are understandably scarce in China and found a single one after lots of looking around since there were no strollers at all to be found at the place the concierge recommended. In retrospect we should have asked our guide, who shook her head when we told her where we'd gone. "It's a different place there," she said with a frown. All I know is that after a 20 minute cab ride in 500 degree (no lie) heat and 200% humidity, we were not giving up until we found a stroller.

Children and Kids Mart is not just one building. It is about 4 city blocks that we walked one way down, the other way up so it might go longer than that, filled almost exclusively with children's clothes in malls and storefronts. AGAIN - the girls were so well behaved in the heat and the bustle and the conversations back and forth between Mark and I, and so patient when I got the sense that someone might know English. I'd show them a picture I took on my cell of what we were looking for and that's how we found some guy selling exactly two strollers who would not bargain very much at all because I mean, look at us, on the second floor of a building we might have walked past. I think we were at a wholesaler but it was worth the try. I chose an ugly brown one with polka dots and Lola was very happy to be pushed in it like she was Cleopatra, Opal prefers to be held. Catching a cab back was fun because when we showed drivers the Marriott's card they would shake their heads no and drive away. The cab we got was the cab we just sat in right as two older people were struggling to get out. Say no to us now.

We are packed and as prepared as we can be for the trip home. See you on the flip side.