Exploring Nanning

Hello from China.

We are so enjoying our time here in China. It is truly a very special time. Kory and I have talked about how when you take a vacation you feel in a yank to make sure to see and do everything in a short amount of time. But with this trip, 17 days in China to adopt a baby means we have had a nice slow pace and have felt more like we are able to savor this time.

Some of you have asked how Hattie is sleeping. Well, she is sleeping very well. She seems to go from fine to tired quickly and she just wants me to hold her. She falls right to sleep and then I can lay her down and she doesn't wake up. Each of the nights she has slept all night. She has had two naps a day and seems to need them. It will be interesting to see how she sleeps when we get home.

This morning, she woke up and seemed sad, as to be expected. We can't imagine how she must feel to go from a foster care where the family really loved her and took great care of her to abruptly going on a long ride to meet some strange white people who don't speak her language. She got tearful this morning at breakfast (she doesn't make a noise, but her face crumples and the tears fill her sweet brown eyes...it just kills us) and then there I sat during breakfast crying myself. Talking with others we all feel the same way, all the kids seem to be quiet and very sad. Some seem to be searching for the foster families, lots of them aren't drinking their bottles. They are all very sober.

We decided to get out on the town for a bit. And it was the best morning. We walked about five minutes from the hotel to a beautiful and large park. Their were tons of mopeds parked. There were many people all out walking, babies in split pants, grandfathers pushing strollers, ladies playing cards at round tables around the park, and dance classes gathered around the water in the park. There are Banyan trees here that are just gorgeous. We learned there are two kinds "those with hair hanging down" and those without. We will take pictures to share with you. We wandered the park for the morning. One woman with a small baby moved to a table near where Hattie and I were watching a Tai Chi class (wow, now we want to learn that!) and started talking to us in Chinese. The baby was all happy and wiggling to see Hattie, but she ignored them. I so wished I could understand this woman and have a conversation with her.

Later, on our walk, watching yet another Tai Chi class, a woman came up to us and said, "Hello, do you speak Chinese? " We said, "no" and she then said, "I studied English at the University of Nanning and I want to welcome you to People's Park in Nanning" She also told us she(points at Hattie) will be happy and is very beautiful. I told her she was kind, she told me I was beautiful and pointed at Kory and said "you are cool" We laughed. She said she walks to the park for her dance class and she hopes to meet us again. "Enjoy your time in Nanning"

We walked back to the grocery store near our hotel to see if we could find sunscreen for Hattie. ( we found Johnson and Johnson now makes a baby lotion with spf 15 suncreen, do we have that at home?? ) and we bought some more baby snacks and our new favorite, Sunkist Orange Pop. I think it is the heat/humidity that makes this so tasty to us. We never drink that at home and we are both craving it.

We plan to go out for dinner tonight and then another walk to our favorite park. I think we will be spending lots of time there this week. We would like take one of their pedal boats out on the water and go around the park that way with Hattie. The boats are so cute, some have swans and other looks like dragons.

I wish you all could see how beautiful it is here. It really is like another world. We are loving every minute.

We are about out of clothing so tomorrow we are having a man pick up our laundry. It is supposed to be less expensive then the hotel. keep your fingers crossed our stuff stays the same size:)