Friends at last

Just a quick post before going to bed. On the last full day of the trip Alice mellowed quite a bit and seemed more comfortable with our family. While waiting in the hotel lobby for the other families to assemble to go out to dinner, Alice ran around and played with Gracie and the other girls instead of clinging for dear life to one of the Chinese guides. She happily sat with me throughout dinner and sat on my lap after dinner while the adults talked. When we got back to the hotel she snuck into Grampa Glenn room and stole a bag of banana chips (although I think Glenn let her take it, he's been "Grampa treats" for all the kids in the group). We sat up in bed together watching Mandarin soap operas, listening to Gracie snoring and feeding eat other banana chips (I really didn't need all the banana chips but didn't want to spoil the moment). She gave me a kiss and went to sleep. All very nice but now it's late and I have to get up early in the morning to pack and she'll probably go back to hating me when she wakes up.

One more thing - Alice is now officially a Canadian citizen -sort of. We got a letter from the embassy stating that Alice Qiu Loten is now a Canadian citizen and has been issued a facilitation visa to allow her to enter Canada on her Chinese passport. After several congratulatory paragraphs the letter ending on a high note by stating that this letter should not be considered official confirmation of citizenship, is not a travel document, and does not guarantee that citizenship will ever actually be granted - God Save The Queen!

See you all Thursday