Hail to Mother Nature

Ooh la la! We celebrated our 25th anniversary (June 4th) early with Soulmate's family by attending the Guthrie's "A Midsummer Night's Dream". Very over the top, very funny. After that we all went to a Brazilian restaurant called Fogo de Chao (Portugese for "cowboy campfire" I think). Fantastic unless you're vegan. I'm stuffed for the 2nd time in 24 hours (see my previous post).



We just drove from Fogo de Chao in Mpls to Roseville, and we got hail and hard rain before we left. Now the sirens are going off, and radar shows big thunderboomers just north and east of us, moving over Hugo (where the big tornado hit last week and flattened most of the town). It's just missing us, and seems to be walloping Stillwater right now.



A tornado was spotted 10 minutes ago in New Brighton, 5 miles from here. Lots of weather around here lately. We've been hoping for warmer weather for months now, but this is the price we pay I guess. Here's the radar map from 10 minutes ago:



BTW, Chia Chi's girl is blogging from Shanghai China, where they've been since last fall. I've been following her site for many months, enjoying pictures and descriptions from urban China. We will be traveling farther west and south, where it is much less urban (though there are many large cities relative to the midwestern U.S.).

There's a chance that Soulmate and I might get to visit the orphanage in Beiliu City that little Katie has spent her first 12 months in. It's about 3 hours east of Nanning, the capital of Guangxi province, and her caregivers will be traveling with her to meet us in Nanning where "Gotcha Day" actually takes place.

Some time later that week we hope to travel (with Katie) back to the orphanage to thank the caregivers, take pictures of where she slept, ate, and played, and possibly examine the children of the orphanage for ear, nose, and throat problems (since I am fairly well acquainted with these places, having examined tens of thousands of them over the years).

This particular orphanage only started allowing international adoptions last fall, and as of yet, no foreigners have been granted permission to visit. I hope that my offer of medical expertise will tempt the officials to allow us a visit. I have a hunch it will be of great benefit to Katie in the future. You are welcome to say a prayer for favor with the authorities. I'll update our progress.