Gracie had a great day!!! She was in such a great mood. She laughed, played and moved around alot. When she came to us five days ago she would just sit there and check things out. The orphange had told us that she could walk with help. Well, we could not get her to even stand up with help, crawl or anything, she would just sit there.

Today as you see we had a major break through. She is not only standing with our help but she it also walking with our help. She has also been picking up her toys and throwing them or hitting us with them. Then she laughs so loud. I would say that she is getting use to us.

One more day and then we will be on our way home. Good night from China. Ed, Lisa, Josh and Gracie.

Use Asian accent when reading this...... "Mom, I have a present for you, I give you hint.....it's in my diaper and it is not a toaster!!!!"

Day 11 - Guangzhou

Here we are at the White Swan... how awesome is this lobby?? This was the backdrop to this morning's breakfast buffet!



Josh adores Gracie!


Today was a "free" day (ie; shopping day!) After breakfast we took a walk in the park next door. It's so cool how people really enjoy the parks and local amenities. In every city we have been in, it wasn't unusual to see people, especially the seniors, enjoy the parks and congregate there to socialize with each other in numerous activities. As we strolled through the park, we came upon group after group ballroom dancing! There were speakers in the trees along with lights. For those who didn't have a partner to dance with, they danced alone with their arms outstretched as if they were holding someone. We also watched a lady give instruction to a couple of others learning to fan dance. We also happened upon what we thought was "hackey-sack"! But instead what we found was a disc looking thing with a feather attached. It was tossed to the others in the group with your foot... like hackey sack. Ed was asked to join in and had a pretty good time....



After some morning shopping, we came back to the room so Gracie could nap and look what arrived! It's the "Going Home" Barbie by Mattel. It's a Caucasian Barbie with an Asian baby! It really choked me up... and here I thought the tears were over!



After nap time we went to have lunch at "Lucy's Bar and Grill"... it's very western and such a fun place to eat. Nothing like hearing "Sweet Home Alabama" playing while eating in China! Each room at Lucy's is decorated with movie posters and memorabilia from the States.


Gracie had her very first french fry today although by the look on her face she clearly looked confused.

"Ummmmm.... Yeah..... this isn't a Chinese noodle guys... you want me to do what?"



We ended the day with a group dinner at a local dining establishment... it was very nice and served Cantonese food. It was served family style and we successfully ate it all with Chopsticks. Most unusual thing we ate tonight? Goose! And it was good. We found out after we had eaten it. LOL

Day 9 - Continued

By the way.... Gracie did really well on her first plane ride. Although she had a rough night and we did have to get up at 4:45.... both Ed and I were up with her at different times for about three hours in the night... we gave her a new nickname that suited her to a "t".... and let's just say that the entire group agreed.... "little miss sunshine"... she was a big old grouch and for the first time only wanted mommy. But the day ended well.

After visiting the clinic, we decided to check out a few of the vendors. We walked in to one store where the owner offered to write Gracie's name in Chinese calligraphy for free. It came out so beautiful I want to frame it when we get home. But I digress.... when I started spelling out her name, I just gave him Grace, he stopped me and asked "like the Bible"? I said yes. His eyes lit up and and he said "I know! I'm a Christian!" I said we were too and he was sooo excited to meet us. I wanted to say... "are you allowed to even profess that?" but I figure he knew what he was doing. : ) Anyway... it was really neat.

We found a place that will develop the disposable cameras for us... couldn't do that in Chongqing for some reason..... Anyway, we dropped off the cameras that were returned to us by Gracie's orphanage and ordered a stone etching. They are rushing it for us since we will only be here a few days... so that was pretty cool! I have also found a chop for both Josh and Gracie... most of them have the zodiac animal and other symbolic dealies on them but the one I found for Gracie is for adoption and has a ladybug on one side and a butterfly on the other.... ladybug is an adoption thing here and the butterfly symbolizes new life. Oh... FYI.... a chop is a rubber stamp that is carved out of wood with your name in English and Chinese. :)

Josh found a Calabash Flute that sounded awesome when the guy demonstrated for us. The music he made was amazing and there are two very distinct sounds that come from it. One of the sounds was like bag pipes! It's handmade out of bamboo. He bought that and they even gave him sample music and instructions... funny.... it doesn't sound like it did when the guy played it! LOL.... Josh has actually gotten it to sound okay a few times.... : )