Guangzhou zoo

Hey guys.  We are still doing well in China.  We are counting down the days till we can come home.  The first week and a half are good and then it gets a little long.  Today is Monday.  We will head out early Friday morning so just a few more days.  It has been really good and we are enjoying our trip still but the sound of home sounds good.  I need to be doing busy work all the time.  I promise you we have the neatest most organized hotel room in all of China;)

Today our group (us and 2 other couples and their children from our agency) went to the zoo. (It has been really nice having some other Americans and adoptive parents to talk to!)  The zoo was actually really pretty nice here although we were sweating to death.  It seems like when we go to the Evansville zoo all the animals seem like they have been given a tranquilizer or something.  These animals were all very active.  Sadie was watching it all and taking it in.  Usually she wouldn't have stayed awake the whole time till noon when we got done but she was very intrigued with the animals.  She was talking to our guide all about them in Chinese.

Here we are at the zoo entrance,

 This is our travel group.

 Mag and Sadie checking out the monkeys.

 Okay these monkeys were so cute.  The mom and dad are on the ground and then they had this little baby you can see in the tree.  He was all over the trees and then he would go get some love from his parents and then back to the trees he would go.  Sadie loved that.  It was adorable.

 Okay so at this zoo they have an exhibit of raccoons....Isn't that weird?  I was like just come to our house after dark and you can see one anytime;)

So as you can see Sadie has decided that her baba is pretty ok.  She is always climbing on his lap and if he is in the other room she will say Baba as loud as she can. Pretty cute!!

 How cute is she in the sunglasses? She loves them.  She is wearing them in our hotel room as we speak.

 Maggie is so adventurous.  You could pay to ride a camel.  Of course she had to do it.  It was quite comical to watch.  You could tell she was a little apprehensive as it first started but she is now a camel riding expert.

 This is called a red panda.  It was pretty cute and came right up to where we were standing.  The whole time we were at the zoo I couldn't wait to see the pandas.  Turns out they were in a glass building kind of in the middle of an exhibit.  I don't know if they come out at certain times of the day or what.  I couldn't even get a good pic of them bc you barely see them.  It was kind of a bust.

 She was asleep about 10 minutes after this picture was taken!

 Sadie didn't want her picture taken so in order to get her to look our guide promised her a sucker!

Maggie riding a dragon.  Just because she is Maggie......

We are sitting in our hotel now waiting on it to stop raining.  It held off for the zoo but when we got back it started.  It doesn't look like it's going to stop anytime soon.  That puts a damper on our plans bc the pool here is outside and anywhere we can go for dinner is outside. Hmmmm.  I guess we will figure something out.  You can get some pizza delivery and things like that to your hotel but I need to get out and about;)

Tomorrow we have a free day which will be nice bc it's the only one we have had this whole trip! I am hoping to find out about getting a taxi or a driver or something to take us to finish our souvenir shopping.  I don't want my boys to be disappointed but so far I haven't found anything very fun for them.

Sadie is doing well.  She is fitting in with us well.  She is the girliest girl you have ever known.  I went from not having a little girl for a decade to complete full swing again.  She loves her nails polished and pretty clothes and of course hair bows!

Connor, Sam, and Brennan-  It's the 4th of July!  Maggie and I are secretly hoping maybe you guys get rained out so we can celebrate with you when we get back;)  Hope you have a fun sleepover at grandmas tonight with the Whiteheads.  Sadie really likes daddy now and I am so happy so my back can have a break from holding her sometimes.  She is squirmy and heavy and very cute;) Love you all so very much.  Only a few more days till I can hug and kiss you guys.  One more thing.... Sadie doesn't like wrestling on the bed yet.  You guys will have to show her.  Dad tried and she did not like it.  It messed up her hair bow,  Oh boy.  Maybe she and I will just have to be the cheerleaders!  Love you guys- Mom

Shamian Island

Hey guys!  Things are still going well for us here in China.  We have had a busy day today at Shamian Island.  As soon as our group arrived at the island it just started storming.  Good thing we brought umbrellas. The storm didn't last too long but it rained the whole time we were there.  It was still a nice time though. We were able to get some souvenir shopping done and eat at Lucy's an American food restaurant!

Sadie is taking a nap now and we aren't really sure what we will do this evening bc of the weather.  Normally in the afternoon we will take Sadie to swim and then go walk somewhere for supper.  Hopefully the rain will die down enough for us to get out of the hotel later on.  Tomorrow we are going to the zoo.  Our guide has been talking to Sadie about that in Chinese and she told us that Sadie is very excited to go there.

Sadie is doing much better with Keith now.  She will sit on his lap some and even let him hold her some too.  Her personality is coming through more and more all the time.  They always say here in China that Hunan girls (Hunan is the province she is from) are very spicy.  Haha.  I would say I don't discredit that all.  She is something else.  Keeping us on our toes and laughing all the time.  

I woke this morning to Sadie sleeping in her crib like this.  When this girl is tired she can sleep just about anywhere and in any position.  She goes to sleep really easily.  She will point to my bed and say Mama.  I lay with her and she goes right to sleep.  Then we put her in her bed and she sleeps the whole night.  It's awesome!

This waterfall is right outside of where we eat breakfast at our hotel. Sadie loves water and fish.  She was very excited to take a look around here.  It is very beautiful.

 Of course when you are going shopping and sightseeing you have to look fabulous!

 These pictures are all from the island.  There are tons of beautiful statues all throughout the island.

 This is Sadie about 10 minutes into the trip!

 It's kind of a tradition to take your adopted child's picture with these statues.  These were the best ones we could get of Sadie.  She was kind of side tracked the whole time.

 We loved this store.  I think we bought about everything we are bringing home from here.  This stores profits go to help the orphanages and for orphan care.  They had lost of Chrisitian themed gifts and were evening playing Christian worship music I knew and was singing along to as I shopped.  It was marvelous;)

Connor, Sam, and Brennan- Hope you had a good time with Jack at our house last night.  I also hope Brennan slept good for Aunt April.  I bet she will be tired from chasing Brennan around.  Hope you all have a good day today and I will call you this evening.  Won't be much longer till we are home.  Can't wait to give you all big hugs and kisses.  We are going to have a lot of America's Got Talent to catch up on.  Love you guys so much! Mom

Hey guys!  Things are going well here for us in Guangzhou, China.  We really like it here.  It's a bigger more westernized city.  You are stared at less bc there are lots of other adopting families here and also bc it's just a bigger more diverse city.  There are also a lot more options for restaurants that are not just your typical Chinese places.  Praise God!! Haha.  Sadie hasn't seemed to notice or mind that we are somewhere different.  As long as there are bathtubs and swimming pools to play in she is ok!

Sadie continues to amaze us.  She is really doing well.  She is opening up to Keith more everyday although she still prefers Maggie or I to him anytime.  She is saying some things in English already.  We spent forever today in the pool.  She would take my hands and jump in.  Each time she would give me a kiss and we would say one, two , three , GO.  I noticed she was really watching my mouth when I would say that.  Not long later she was saying one, two. go!  She also says when we are going to the elevator I do it-bc she needs to always push the button for the elevator.  She is very smart.  She also said something really cute the other day. We had pulled up at the hotel and she said something in Chinese really excitedly.  I asked our guide what she said and she told us she said something like we are home!  You can tell how much she is just soaking in her new surroundings and all the things we are doing together.  

Today Sadie had her medical appt. here.  It was pretty uneventful.  I asked our guide to ask the dr if he heard anything abnormal when he listened to her heart.  He said yes you will need to follow up in the US.  Haha.  So that's about all that came of that.  She had to get her blood drawn.  They took her from us to do it.  She cried for a minute and when they brought her back we gave her a sucker and she was easily consoled.  She fell asleep on the way to the appt and on the way back to the hotel from it.  She seems to tire easier than other 4 year olds.  

Tomorrow we will be going to Shamian Island to do some souvenir shopping and eat at a American restaurant there and I think there is a playground for Sadie to play on.  We are looking forward to that.  

Here is a little photo recap of today.

Our guide talked us into this too.  It's called dragon fruit.  Sadie loves it.  It's kind of plain but sweet.  It's pretty funky looking.

 How cute was she this morning?  There was a kids clothing store close to our hotel in Changsha.  Of course I had to get her a couple new things.  Haha.  They were irresistible.  We have found that dresses and traveling a lot are not a good idea with Sadie or maybe we are just so outdated on being parents to a little girl.  We are constantly picking her up and putting her back down and her booty is almost always showing.  As though people aren't already staring at us......

 This is in our hotel lobby.  This is the nicest and most beautiful hotel we have ever been too.

 On our way to her medical appt. She was sound asleep by the time we got there.

 These are all from her medical appt.  Look at the picture below where he is listening to her heart and she is even being goofy then.  She didn't seem to concerned with what was going on.

 Here she is just having some lunch in the hotel room.

 Aunt April we just put these pajamas on a few minutes ago and she was very proud of them,  She is so crazy it's hard to get a good pic of her.  They are super cute!!

Connor, Sam, and Brennan- We are really missing you guys.  We are over half way done with our trip!We can't wait to get home, although I am dreading the plane ride home with this wild woman;) I think you are going to Aunt April's today.  Hope you guys have a lot of fun.  We will call you later.  Love you all so much.  Mom