Trip to China
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Sunday, December 21, 2008 Oh what a night. Somebody (and I won’t name names) would NOT go to bed last night…the diaper was clean, the belly was full but all this short someone would do is scream and cry. Once it got past the “faking” stage, I had no choice but to lay her in bed with me and then…..all was right with the world. So there we go, I probably have created a demon, but hey we all needed the sleep! I will say that this little person is one VERY cozy snuggle bunny. Once I dislodged her from my neck (what a grip!), we ended up spooning and that was it, we were out like a light. Hey mom, this kid is squirmier than I was as a kid…by the time we woke up, she was sideways, one foot in my face! Today we went to another Peoples Park in Nanning today called Green Hill Park. It was very lush with cool statues and structures. The main attraction was a lake filled with red carp (Koi). Dad, you would have gone crazy in this place, there were thousands of them…and some were HUGE! We could buy fish food and boy could those guys eat! It was a frenzy when the pellets hit the water. Again, we were the main source of entertainment for the locals, but everyone was very nice. There was a pagoda way up in the hills that some of the group checked out and they said it had a pretty good view despite the fog. Afterwards, we went to a Buddhist temple. There were several buildings housing different types of statues, some looked to be ganesh, some the goddess durga. One building housed a giant gold fat bellied Buddha, another huge building housed a series of five huge gold buddhas. Each held its hand in a differentposition, which signifies a specific story from Buddha’s life. Very cool. The locals were burning incense and leaving fruit offerings at the altars. The whole place was a smoking haze of incense. It was quite over powering but very cool. A monk performed a blessing on some of our children. Some in our group would not allow the blessing, as they thought it would go against our Christian faith, but Mike and I don’t think it ever hurts to be doubly blessed, so we allowed it. Lauren was very sweet & quiet while the monk prayed over her and painted a red dot on her forehead. On the bus ride back to our hotel, we had a breakthrough. Little Miss Lauren allowed Daddy to tickle her and actually laughed. It was short but very sweet! We also had a fun time playing “hide and seek” by throwing her blanket over her face…clearly she has done this before and she really enjoyed it! So it good that she is starting to break her shell. Later in the day, we went back to the restaurant where the pigeon was served with the majority of our travel group. Tonight we tried a bunch of new dishes and surprise-surprise Mike LOVED this beef, pineapple, and ginger dish. I mean he couldn’t get enough. Amazing! Also amazing was Lauren being a happy giggly little monkey at dinner. She was so active & vocal and just having a grand old time with Daddy. Mike was beyond happy, as she is finally starting to trust him. We decided he would be the primary caretaker for the evening to build up their relationship so he fed her at dinner and gave her the bottle before bedtime. Right now he is holding her & walking her around the room to try to wind her down. From what I can see she’s got her arms wrapped tightly around his neck, so I think he’s “in” now! Praise the Lord! Much like her father, Lauren is not very adventurous in trying new foods. She will put down big bowls of pork congee (it’s a really watery rice dish) and scrambled eggs but won’t really try anything else solid. I’ve tried sweet potatoes, bananas, noodles, peaches, breads, cheerios, teething biscuits and Gerber puffs. Nothing will suffice, so it looks like I’ll be boiling a lot of rice when we get home trying to duplicate this congee! As for home, I can’t tell you how much Mike and I miss salad! We honestly eat it several times a week at home and here we are not able to since everything is washed in the local water. If you can’t peel it or remove the skin, ya just don’t eat it. Never in our lives would we think that we would miss iceberg lettuce, carrots and cucumbers so much! Oh and of course, Mike misses his Tastykakes. Ok, now I’m making myself hungry…got to stop! Here’s some scattered facts/observations that we’ve made: • In restaurants, you are not provided anything “wasteful” unless you pay extra for it. Napkins are not commonly used (nether is facial tissue or TP) so if ordered, we are provided with a tiny little box of facial tissue to use. We were warned about this so Mike’s mom was kind enough to send us off with a supply of paper napkins (thanks Nona, they have already come in handy!).

Hanging out at Green Hill Park with thousands of Koi Neither Lauren or Tess is too excited about the strollers. Buddhist Temple A young monk blessing our girl - please note that she has not yet let go of that blue stacking cup! Such beauty! The blessing brought out giggles galore on the way back to the hotel.

For those of you soon to travel to China, be sure to pack some paper napkins…because these babies can be messy, as can Mommies, LOL. Also if you wish to take home remnants of a meal, the food is literally put into a plastic bag (at an extra charge), regardless if it’s solid or a liquid. There are no plastic or styrofoam containers here! • Shopping bags are no longer provided free of charge. Some time within the past year China put a ban on the free use of plastic bags to help reduce the country’s dependency on oil & to cut down on emissions to clean up the air. If you are coming to China & wish to shop, it’s a good idea to bring one of those recyclable shopping bags that we have so readily available in the U.S. • New cars do not come equipped with horns in China. Only police and official cards have them unless you pay extra to get them installed. • Domestic adoptions in China are VERY different than domestic adoptions in the U.S. Our guide, XiXi is a single mother and she adopted her daughter here. She said that she was working with her father and just visited an orphanage one day, saw a child that she thought was pretty and told the orphanage she wanted to adopt her. Her daughter went home with her that same afternoon. Can you imagine if things were that easy for Americans in the U.S.? • China’s international adoption program is not favorable (for lack of a better word) with many of the Chinese people. While some see it as a very good thing and give us a thumbs up symbol and tell us “very lucky baby” others are upset by it. Some feel embarrassed that their country is losing face because they aren’t taking care of their own, they are too proud to understand that we who chose China adoption don’t think less of them because we are so humbled that they are allowing us to parent these precious children. Even the government offices that are used for the adoptions are pretty much tucked away so not to draw attention to this process. The Civil Affairs office was in an unmarked room in a local hotel and the other authority’s office where we had a swearing in was hidden behind a basketball court. • People get married any day of the week in China. It’s not an occasion that is saved for a weekend as in the U.S. Instead the bride & groom get married based on a date that is “lucky”. We have already seen three wedding parties at our hotel since we’ve been here at that the Majestic. Also while the bride will wear a traditional red dress for the ceremony, they often borrow a western style (white) gown from the local photo shop for their official pictures. There are many photo shops that offer this service and they are always busy with clients. It’s pretty cool too because they have just gorgeous young people as “live mannequins” in their storefronts looking very wedding chic! • The average family’s house is one floor, in a multilevel building and no larger than 800 square feet. • The beds in these first two hotels have been hard as rocks. Mike likens it to sleeping on a wrestling mat. Ouch! • Lastly, there is no way for me to have cute hair in China! The hair dryers in the hotels are so weak that I would be better off just asking Mike to blow on my head to dry this mop. Therefore I’ve been air-drying everyday and the curls have taken over. I can’t wait to be home with my super blast dryer and big brush to smooth out this helmet again! Ok, enough of that hubbub – time for bed again. Let’s hope it goes smoother than last night. Tomorrow is a travel day, we are leaving Nanning to go to Guilin (Gway-lin) and since the babies don’t have passports yet, we can’t fly. It will be a very long bus ride! We most likely won’t be able to do an update, but we’ll be sure to fill you in the next day. Goodnight to all, we love you and miss you!

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