Hi everyone!

Hi - it's me. Sorry you haven't heard from me in a couple of days. The days here are very full. We are on our own for one meal a day and it is very time consuming finding something to eat :). Add paperwork, sightseeing and taking care of a baby and you get a very tired Mommy and Daddy by the time the end of the day comes.

First let me tell you how Chloe is doing now. She is rolling over both from back to front and front to back. She is babbling much more saying mama, and baba. These are the Chinese words for mama and dada - I'm not convinced that she is saying them with any meaning - but since almost every Chinese person that we meet tries to get her to say them - she is getting lots of practice. She is still falling over while sitting up - so pillows all around are very necessary. She is very friendly and smiles readily both at us and all of the friendly Chinese people who smile at her and try to make her laugh. Yesterday (Tuesday) was the first time that she cried to come back to me. Most of the time she seems happy to be with us and happy to be held by others also - not much difference. Last night when we were shopping Lucy ( one of the workers in the shops around the hotel who has become a new friend), wanted to hold her but once she left my arms her lip started quivering and she cried to come back! Progress I hope! She is also imitating our kissing sounds - she can do a really good kiss into the air, but when you try to get her to kiss you - or you kiss her - she gets a puzzled look on her face like "what was that?" She is still having lots of dirty diapers and going through at least 2-3 outfits a day. We did have to break down and do some more laundry, but this time we did it through a shop near our hotel and the bill was MUCH more reasonable (about $15 US).

Monday we did some sightseeing here in Guangzhou. We went to the Zoo/Aquarium. It was very similar to an American zoo - but there were not many people there at all. I guess Monday morning is not a popular time to visit. We saw a dolphin/sea lion show that was also similar to what we might see back in the states, although the pool was a little run down. We also trekked all over the zoo in search of the "Giant" panda. I guess panda bears are very small in general because the giant one was no bigger than Hadley - I was glad that we were able to see it and to take Chloe there. As I was sitting there watching the show I was thinking how amazing it was that all of these little girls who have probably only been outside a very few times were now sitting watching a dolphin show! They all seemed to really enjoy it. God is good!

We ate lunch and then went to the long awaited "Friendship Store". I say long awaited because we were originally supposed to go there the day after we got the babies because they were supposed to have lots of baby clothes and supplies. This is a government run department store that has lots of products that are imported from outside of China. It is very similar to one of our stores - 5 stories tall with departments for everything, electronics, appliances, clothes, jewelry, shoes etc. The prices here were basically the same or more than in America, so I don't think that the average Chinese person shops there. I checked on buying a curling iron (to replace the one that melted the very first day of the trip!), but at $30 US dollars it didn't seem worth it for just a few more days.

Shopping in any type of larger Chinese store is very interesting. You know how when you go to a place like Penny's the only sales people you see are cashiers? Well in China every small department has at least 2 sales people who will not allow you to look at anything by yourself :). A department is about 4 rows or isles and then you have moved to the next dept. So for instance when I was looking at the baby things at the Friendship Store, there were a few rows of blankets and bedding that had 2 women working, a few rows of 0-12 month clothing that had 3 women working and a section with cups, soap, diapers etc. that had 2 women working. If you pick up something to look at it they immediately take it and try to display it for you and then spend the rest of the time showing you things that they think are similar that you might be interested in buying. From an American perspective this is very awkward. It feels very rude to turn down the 5th or 6th outfit that they show me so I generally have to leave that department to escape! When you do decide to buy something you can not carry it with you to a main checkout to pay, instead one of those clerks has to fill out an order slip from that department, you take this slip to another part of the store to pay (where the receipt is officially stamped in triplicate!) and then you take your stamped piece of paper back to the original department where the clerk has wrapped your purchase for you. Whew! This process is tiring for me - I can't imagine what it is like for them! I think a Chinese person would feel very neglected shopping in an American store :).

On Tuesday morning it was back to paperwork procedures. First we took Chloe to have visa and passport photos taken. Then it was on to the doctor for the exam that will allow Chloe to enter the US. They weighed and measured her - 18.6 lbs and 77cm. Took her temperature - normal. Tested her hearing by shaking a tambourine on each side of her head. Asked us questions about her current health, and gave her a general look-over without her clothes on. This was the part that she hated the most - the doctor that did her exam was wearing a mask and this was very scary to her. The doctor said that her Mongolian spots were normal - these are areas on her body that look like very bad bruising. This is quite common in Asian children and from what I've been told usually fades by 5-8 years old. She passed all of these checks with flying colors so this hurdle was over.

We then had some paperwork corrections to make because our adoption decree was printed with our address as Louisville instead of Goshen. When Dave and I were checking our paperwork for errors this didn't stick out to us - Louisville was spelled correctly after all! We are very fortunate that our guides caught this before our paperwork was sent to the consulate - it would have been a huge problem. We are even more fortunate that we adopted from this province. If we had come to Guangzhou from another province with this error we would have actually had to fly back to the adopting province to go to the Civil Affairs Office there to have it corrected. As it was our guide Mabel took our papers back to the Civil Affairs Office here - we paid more fees - and had it corrected. Praise God for Mabel!

The rest of our group has joined us from Hunan - we saw them for the first time last night at dinner and it sounds like they had a good experience in Hunan. A general observation is that their babies seem to be more advanced than our group - with many of them walking and some even saying a few English words already! Most of the babies are within a month - 6 weeks of Chloe's age so you can see the range of development and stimulation the babies have experienced.

Today - right now in fact Peter and Mabel are at the Consulate presenting all of our paperwork. We are to wait in our room for the next hour hoping not to hear from them. If we don't hear anything then everything went smoothly and we just have to go tomorrow for our final procedures. If they call it will be because there is something in our papers that needs clarification and we will need to work that out. 35 minutes to go!

No final word yet on the status of our flight - but hopefully today we will hear something definite. Thinking of all of you - especially Benjamin, Johnathan, and Rebecca! We can't wait to get home! -Angie