A busy day in town!



Monday was a busy day in town! Our sweet guide, Mary, took us around. We are with another family from our agency, the Walls. They are AMAZING and we couldn't be more convinced that the Lord chose us specifically to be here at the same time. They will be lifelong friends for sure!

 

We opened our next Amazing Race clue and headed out for the day ; ) The hotel has a pretty good breakfast with some western choices (eggs, hash browns, bacon, pancakes, fruit) so that is a blessing! Also below is a picture of Kate with a toy phone - she picked it up and put it right to her ear and started babbling - so I guess she's seem one of those before! The bottom right picture is of Kate with 2 of the Wall kiddos - one has been theirs since she was two and the other was added to their clan on Sunday! Both girls are 8 years old and so precious!

 



First we went to a government office to sign adoption papers. The office was in walking distance, so we walked. Which sounds so much easier than it actually was! The traffic laws here are ... well ... pretty different! Cars just weave in and out and mopeds and pedestrians are all in the street going every which way. We watch it from our hotel window and are in awe of the whole thing! It's amazing that more people don't get hit! It's amazing that we didn't get hit! Thank you, Lord! Driving is pretty crazy here too. We have run a few errands in a van with a driver that our guide gets... and there are no seat belts and there are a thousand close calls per minute. It's so crazy! Anyway, in the pics below we are at the goverment office. We had to sign lots of papers and put our thumb prints (in red - China color) over each of our signatures. Kate and I are with a government official in the top middle picture. She had on her slippers! She was very sweet. She asked about why we chose China. The bottom right picture is of us with Kate's orphanage director (the man) and another orphanage lady (she came to drop Kate off Sunday too). They were so sweet and playful with Kate! She didn't want to go to them but she watched them closely! I was glad about that. There are two families here adopting (both are from Hawaii!) and one of their little girls wanted to go back to the orphanage worker and that was tough. Both those families have been waiting SIX years for healthy babies! They were a bit shocked that we had waited 15 months for Kate. They couldn't even tell what was wrong with her... her lip really looks great. I wonder if they did it again if they would choose the special needs route? So interesting! Anyway, I was also glad that Kate's orphanage staff was so sweet. They really exuded a unique sweetness and kindness and interest in her well being than I had expected. We tried to give them money to get supplies for the orphanage but they refused to take anything.

 



Here is a picture below of us walking on the sidewalk. Thankfully, at the time of the picture, there were no actual cars on the sidewalk, which is good - b/c sometimes they come right up on the sidewalk! Our guide walks (quickly) and we all run like little ducks to keep up with her ; ) Kate is super easy and did great in her sling all morning and afternoon (despite my obvious poor ability to correctly use the sling - I need to re-read the directions I think! hehe). She fell right to sleep when we got home. We had to wake her up to head out on our afternoon errands. We went to the police station for more signing papers and taking pictures. Then we went to another office where they asked us if we were pleased with her, if she was what we expected, etc. She is such an angel and we both are completely peaceful with these decisions - even though they are so weighty! crazy that we signed adoption papers today and she is OURS! Crazy. Feels so right! We are having a hard time believing she has only been with us for 36 hours. Seems like we've had her with us always. So crazy. Below is a picture of James and Kate with our guide Mary. Also a thumb print pic ; ) All business people in China have their own stamp. So if you don't have your own stamp, you use your thumb! Pretty cool! All the lights were off in some of the government buildings. Electricity is really expensive and everyone is very conscious to conserve it whenever possible. They even unplug things that are off just because they worry that they could be using electicity. They are such sweet people and have all been so kind!

We also went to Walmart, Papa Johns, and KFC! There's the rice in bins at Walmart ready to scoop into bags and bug. Just thought that was cool - looked like big sandboxes! And it was James' birthday - I got him a baby... hehe... well, really he helped with that gift too! But I did bring some of his favorite candies to make a birthday cake. Funny story, but I bought them at a gas station a couple weeks ago. And i guess I usually don't make gas station store purchases so the credit card company got suspicious and cancelled my card! Hehe. Wonder what they will do while we're here in China if they get learly of the Exxon a mile from our house??? Hehe. We called them first just to give them the heads up about China! ; ))

Other random pics from today - all the mopeds parded outside the mall with their colorful rain ponches over them, tired little kate after a morning of errands, our hotel lobby - so pretty, and Mary (in black) from the back as we all run after her. She looks and walks JUST like my Aunt Jennifer from the back. it's uncanny! Auntie Jen, I'll try to take some video for you!

 

Today we're going to have a restful day mostly in the room! Kate is still sick and we want her to have a day with regular naps and bottles and food and playtime. She is just the sweetest little angel baby and we love her so much already. We miss our "big" girls a lot and have tried every way we can think of to shorten the trip... but it's just really a two week adventure and there's not a way to make it happen quicker. We are excited to have this time with Kate and she seems to be bonding very will with us. We are probably not going to go to the orphanage this week for a visit - it's a long day 4-5 hours both ways ... and she is sick and we have met all the orphanage people except for one that were in Kate's life (and we sent her a present and some pictures and a note). A friend visited last week and we will just have Kate call her when she is older and has questions about the orphanage! Maybe we will even come back someday. The drive would be tough and dangerous ... and James and I are both feeling the freedom to skip that visit and just focus on getting to know Kate better and spending time with her and working on what she eats/drinks. We are anxious to get to Guangzhou, see some dear friends, and bring Kate home to her sisters and all of you! Please pray that these next days are great bonding time but that they also fly by and that our girls are happy and healthly back at home! Thank you! And please send us your prayer requests!!!!