Greetings from Guangzhou

Ellie in the White Swan Lobby

Hi from Guangzhou!

I finally have some free time to blog~ yeah!

We arrived in Guangzhou on Friday during typhoon~ many families were rerouted and had to land in another province due to weather conditions. Our flight was surprisingly smooth~ PTL!

Some funny anecdotes I want to recall before I forget:

There is a dear little 2 year old boy on our travel group who Sophie knows. She helps and plays w/ him when we're altogether. The other day our Chinese guide overheard Sophie say to him in Chinese, "Wow! You're eating a lot; you ate a lot at the orphanage, too. Your belly's getting as big a a bull." LOL

Walking in the rain in Guangzhou

Our last night in Beijing was spent w/ Ellie, Shane and I venturing alone to the Pearl Market. Shane was a master bargainer. Ellie wanted to buy a t-shirt and the lady wanted to sell her one for 240 RMB...just for reference, I bought a strand of pearls and a pearl ring for 120RMB. Shane stepped in to rescue his sister and the lady became enraged,  swung her calculator w/ a pen attached and smacked him in the eye brow! We all had a good laugh, and Shane had a goose egg! One the way home, Shane led so well as he hailed us a cab, denied 3 of them who wanted to charge us 60 RMB ( 16 normally) to get back to the Marriott! After finally getting a taxi that would use his meter, we headed home~ only for our driver to begin making 3 wrong turns to a wrong hotel. Shane, in his calm and collected manner, stopped the taxi and said we would walk. We could see the Marriott dome and walked 4 blocks amid horrid traffic to finally get "home." 

Fascinated...

Sophie is warming up to me daily! She has a fascination w/ our chests~ she was in hysterics when she tried on my bra. Three Chinese little girls approached Todd in the hotel lobby and were all over him. They reached for his massive pecs, hysterically giggled in Chinese and tried to lift his shirt to see if he was a woman!!! The Chinese moms rescued Todd from a potentially embarrassing situation.

Last night we purchased Chinese dresses for Sophie and have "red couch" pics on Thursday. She chose dark purple and looks beautiful in it! We got sizes 8-16 for her to have in the future~ all for about 3$ per dress!

Sophie's first airplane ride to Guangzhou
 

As I said earlier, she is warming up to me every day. I say, "Mommy loves Sophie." She giggles and says,," Sophie boo yaw Mama." ( Sophie doesn't love Mama.) It's become a cute game! I just keep offering help and allow her to lead how much affection is given. I continue to kiss her; she giggles and wipes off my kisses. Last night she did invited me into her bed to look at her photo album. She fell asleep w/ me caressing her beautiful face. It was a little slice of heaven as I've watched from afar for 2 weeks!

Enjoying Starbucks

The area where we are in Guangzhou is wonderful~ much smaller, more quaint and much hotter ( humidity is 100%).  There are lovely little shops, a Starbucks (our caramel fraps were GREAT... Sophie had her first mango passion fruit smoothie) and beautiful European architecture everywhere. We love Lucy's, a local Western restaurant that caters to adoptive families. We've had fettuccine alfredo, wonderful stir fry veggies, beef and fresh basil and great burgers/fries. Tonight we're eating authentic Chinese on the island.

Please continue to pray that Sophie will learn to obey me; she runs away from me in public~ a very busy hotel, the crowded streets...I don't make a battle out of most things, but her safety is paramount.

Hope you enjoy the photos.