Heading to Guangzhou

The pic of the food is what I talk about in the email. The pot of chicken etc

Today Friday, we are leaving for Guangzhou. This is where the US Consulate is where all adoptive families, finish their journey. At the Consulate we take a final oath, saying that I will not abandon the child or abuse, and will always take care of her.

Our last few days in Nanchang, have been uncomfortably hot. But we still ventured to see a nearby Pagoda, which cost 15 yuan ($2.20 USD) to walk threw an overgrown garden. It was well worth it because I saw a "Squatty Potty." We also went to a large public park and a book store, which was 5 times the size of a Barnes & Noble! I bought a dvd of PeterPan in Chinese, a 3 CD-set of chinese lullabys, and two books that have English and Chinese words-- "The Problem with Mom," and the "Problem with Gram."

Yesterday for lunch we ate at a local Chinese restaurant, which was very local. The food was in individual small Kerosene lit pans. The menu was above the food all in Chinese. We tried to point to the food to ask what it was. Pork, Chicken, vegetable, but no one understood English. Our friend Joe resorted to pictures on a memo pad. He drew a duck and a pig but that did not work either. We wound up with two individual pots of stewed chicken, rice and vegetable looking things. Inside the chicken pots we found a chicken foot, and choose to take a picture of it instead of eating it. The rest of the pot had dark meat and an oily broth. A local young boy was amused by us.

On our way back to the hotel we went through a local street and were immediately an attraction! Many women congregated around me and Dave and Joe and Kristen with our babies. Luckliy we had our crad with us that explained in Chinese that were were adopting these children. We got lots of thumbs up and a few thank you's from young women. One woman managing to communicate with me that I should take Phoebe's socks off. I did, and got another thumbs up. The women Joe got all of this on video. Of course we really want to know what they were saying! I could tell the women were happy with us, because we got a lot of smiles and nods.

For dinner that night we took a risky excursion through the busy streets to a Pizza Hut. Crossing the streets was every man for themselves. No one had the right a way. Only once did I find myself standing in the middle of the street in the middle of traffic, and had to wait until there was a glimpse of daylight to sneak through to the other side. When we got to Pizza Hut we ate typical american pizza hut pizza. Going back to the hotel the same precarious way was made worse, because the mopeds did not use their headlights.

Phoebe continues to feed herself formula/rice cereal and that is her mainstay. We give her scrambled eggs, fresh fruit, some jarred baby food(corn, apples) puffs,and dry cereal. We found teething cookies that keep her occupied but they create a mess that a wipe cannot handle!

She goes to sleep easily with a little bit of rocking and she lets me know when she is awake by crying out. She smiles when she sees me. She takes two to three naps per day, each about an hour and a half. She plays well by herself, and once she sees something new she goes right for it. Money seems to be a big attraction!

I think I am doing pretty well with mommy tasks. Changing diapers is quicker, recognizing fusses, is not too hard. Feeding her small bits is easy. Remembering what to take on our trips out of the room is slow to come because Dave is several steps ahead of me! I am truly being spoiled and my learning curve will be huge, when I take over by myself at home.

More to come once we get to Guangzhou.