A Normal Day

First things first, I posted a few new pictures on the right. If it didn't take several minutes to upload each picture through the VPN, I'd upload all of them. I can't complain though... I'm just glad we can access and update the Blog in China. A slow VPN is better than none at all. Oh yeah, it's Heath.

It was a different day in Guangzhou. After yesterday's trip and emotions at the orphanage, today was bound to be different. This will sound strange, but it was a fairly normal day. Mistye and I actually made it until 10pm last night instead of passing out at 8:30. Skyped with Reese, Maddox and Zane also. Fantastic to see their faces and talk to them. We miss them terriby, but it sounds like they are having a great time. Echo slept through the night again. Man, she is a great sleeper! We got really lucky. We woke up at a normal time, took our time getting ready and enjoyed a relaxing breakfast. Small world - we met a couple from Knoxville, TN who adopted a little boy.

We decided to visit a "museum" today in hopes of finding a piece of local art to take home. I was looking for a cool carved piece of bone or jade or something that looked Chinese, but modern. Quite a tall task considering Chinese porcelin is everywhere and very ornate. Beautiful stuff, but not our style. The museum, which was previously a single family residence, was incredible. You can't even imagine the workmanship and detail. Carved wood, ivory, bone, oil paintings, watercolor paintings, carved rice (yes, a single piece of rice), carved everything. The stuff blew my mind. Seriously, it's hard for me to believe that people can create such beautiful works of art. Mistye and I bought an ink stamp for Echo with both her English and Chinese name on it. Watching the guy hand carve the letters was amazing. By the way, he said the English letters were the most difficult. Go figure? We also bought an authentic Chinese baby doll. Unbelievable stuff everywhere. Echo was a champ the whole time. She napped in the stroller for about an hour. Nice!

Mistye had traditional Chinese tea and we learned quite a bit about the proper way to prepare and enjoy tea. Who knew? We walked out with green tea, flower tea and a new tea cup. It really helps having Rebecca with us because a) she translates and b) she explains everything and is very knowledgeable. And, she loves air conditioning as much as we do and she seeks it out. She orders us ice cold Cokes everywhere we go. If those are the only Chinese words I learn, it will be worth it. Warm Cokes... not so good.

From there, we headed to another store that was packed with bigger pieces of art, pottery, etc. Mistye found a great jade necklace that signifies mother and daughter. We also found a beautiful vase that is bright red. It's wood, but then painted with 100+ coats of laquer and then carved. Again, the craftsmanship is amazing. The dollar goes a long way here thankfully. There were pieces in there from "masters" that would have bankrupted us, so I held on to Echo extra tight. She's in sensory overload right now, so she wants to touch everything. It was a fun morning and early afternoon. Not quite like going shopping at Old Navy, but it was kind of nice to have a normal shopping day.

Now to lunch. We found an Irish pub behind the hotel and hit the jackpot! We had nachos, hummus, tomato soup and tomato/mozzarella salad. We've had bad experiences with burgers thus far, so we've decided they just aren't in the cards this trip. Last night, I tried to surprise Mistye with a burger, fries and fruit salad -- we only at the fries. The fruit was soaked, and by soaked I mean coated, with mayonaisse. I don't get it. Anyway, the Irish pub is a bit closer to food normalcy. I'm dying for a burrito though.

We came back, put Echo down for a couple hours and relaxed. I know I've said already, but Echo is a great sleeper. Echo woke up and I played with her for a while. She is very, very close to walking. I worked with here for about 10 minutes and she loved taking 4-5 steps and then falling into my arms. We have it on video.

Another family flew into Guangzhou tonight and we met them for dinner. They have two boys in tow - 5.5 and 3.5 years old. An impressive feat to travel with the whole family. They adopted a little girl who is 16 months old. She is super cute. Another small world moment, the couple (Ashley and Brian) went to Samford University and know Andrew Dye well (Clay's younger brother). Clay, my roomate in college, Clay who I saw three weeks ago with his family. Incredible.

Anyway, we're winding down now. Almost like winding down in Marietta. Of course, we are not in Marietta. We're in Guangzhou, China with our new baby girl Echo who has only known us for 5 days. I must say though, for five days, things feel pretty normal. I can see in Echo's eyes that she loves us already. She laughs, smiles and reaches out for us. She also tests us and disobeys. Yep, things are getting more normal by the minute.