Shopping Day in Guangzhou

Okay, so most women would be excited about this day…I, however, was not. There are only a few things I do want and they are on Shaiman Island, we go there Wednesday. But we went to this big shopping mall like thing. We went to get some dresses for Hope and Eden. I think I bought them too small. Hope was barely in hers and I doubt Eden will fit in hers. I even bought some bigger sizes (so I thought) for when they are older, but they seem small too…the neck hole is the problem. Then we tired to get some shoes, but her feet were too small for anything they had. So we headed to the Pizza Hut early. We saw two more adoptive families I have been emailing and facebooking with and that was cool, but we eat in shifts around here so Eric had to entertain Hope while Noah and I ate. Then I grabbed Hope so Eric could eat and we were off in search of pearls. Apparently it is another Chinese tradition to give pearls to your daughters for when they wed. Since I don’t know if the girls will even like pearls let alone want to wear them on their wedding day I got them each a modest pearl bracelet that I’ll likely give them when they turn 16 or something. they made both bracelets out of one strand of pearls. It is amazing to watch how fast they can individually tie each pearl on the string. Noah got a necklace himself…gold colored pearls that look and are shaped like a strand of corn kernels. They match the second Kung Fu outfit we got him…a gold one with black dragons. I thought the necklace was unattractive but with the outfit it looks man-ly and awesome. Who knew the kid had fashion sense. The longer I watched these ladies make the girls bracelets I wanted a strand for myself. So Eric let me get a necklace for myself. So now I own a real pearl necklace and it was so inexpensive here! Here is Noah’s new outfit (minus the necklace).

Later we went down to the pool with another family with 2 teenage girls. They were so sweet and they played tag and Marco Polo with Noah. He was so thrilled to have other children to play with. It was such a gift to him and to me. It was great to see him playing and having some fun. This family is such a blessing to us in many ways. Another way is that Amber (mom) offered to share some Coconut oil to help out Hope’s scabbed over lip. It look awful. She said she uses it on her other adopted children and it works wonders. We are hopeful that it will help our sweet girl. So we bartered coconut oil for Pedialyte. God bless them Pedialyte and Gatorade is all their new daughter will drink and they were running out. We had a full box of it and Hope won’t drink it so we were glad to give it to Amber and Brian. It really is an instant community here in the adoption world. It’s pretty cool.

Then at 5:30 we had a group picture taken where we were supposed to dress our kids in their Chinese clothes if we bought them any. Check out our China Girl!

Look how happy and cute I am!!

Then we went and ate Subway with the precious couple that is standing right next to us. That is Melissa and Craig from Birmingham. We love them.

Hope is doing well. She definitely favors Daddy right now. She was not letting me hold her much at all this day until the Subway run when Eric just gave her to me to handle. She started to arch and freak out at the Subway when I sat down to hold her in my lap while we ate. Her and I had about a 30 second tussle and the she quieted down and was fine. Since that time she is much better with me. We think she is just mistrustful of women right now…which is understandable she had been abandoned by them 3 different times in her life now. She took some time to go to sleep and wouldn’t let me leave the room but once asleep she only woke up once during the night and slept till 8 am. So all in all she is doing really well.