We are home after 3 flights and 30 hours and what a wonderful feeling it is!  Grace had her Gotcha moment with her brothers finally!!  We came down the stairs to baggage claim and there they were standing with pink "It's a girl!" balloons and big smiles and shouts of "There she is!"  It was a little bit of chaos as you can imagine. They were there along with my mother and our dear friends Ed, Jaime, Zac and Amanda Cook.  I immediately started boohooing like a baby and hugged them all. Grace was a little overwhelmed. She smiled at many of the boys and even gave my Mom a kiss on the forehead (to her great delight) but then had a bit of a meltdown. I was holding her, but she seemed to lose track of where Pat and I were and can you imagine her fear of another abandonment?  So Pat took her and she calmed down and whenever she started to well up with tears, one of us would be there to reassure her that everything was OK.  She had tears intermingled with smiles and all of our airport guests were very considerate of her feelings given they all just wanted to hug and kiss her!

When we left the ground in China Grace and I were looking out the window and I said, "Good-bye land of Grace's birth. Thank you God for allowing her to be born here and thank you that she can now come to America to be with us and to learn about you in freedom. May she come to love you and trust you as we do."

God worked out the pieces of our puzzle to get us home last night.  When we got to Beijing we got into the loooooooooooooong Continental line to re-check our bags to Newark, NJ.  We were at the very end of this line that snaked all the way to the front and we noticed after about 10 minutes that the line was not moving.  While we were standing there, someone came up to me and said, "Come with me."  Obediently we followed, not sure where we were going, but hoping it would help us get our bags checked a bit sooner.  Grace, who hadn't seemed heavy all week, was feeling heavier than usual to my arms as we carried around her and our 3 carry-ons and tried to get our 4 other very heavy gift laden down bags checked.  She took us around the corner to be next in line at another counter! 

When we got to the counter, however, there was a note that said, "We are sorry for the inconvenience, but this flight had a late arrival and will leave at 6:40 and arrive 8:25". Oh boy. Our connecting flight was at 8:45. No way were we getting home as much as we asked, "Do you have any partnering companies that could fly us home?"  It was not only too much for the translation, but it seemed hopeless. The best we could get out of it would be they'd put us up for the night in Newark and we'd fly out at 8:25 AM on Saturday. They also would give us 3 seats for the long flight from Beijing. What could we do but accept? 

Once we were flying, we had some hope, however, that we might actually get home.  We flew Eastward and picked up the jet stream and it helped us gain an hour and arrive at 7:40.  Grace had the most beautiful flights. She didn't cry on any of them except during a couple BM's because that diarrhea we all prayed about has turned into a bit of constipation. But she slept from about 10 to 6 which was just incredible. 

Once we landed, we hustled to immigration where we stood in the Foreign line because until they stamped Grace's paperwork at this port of entry, she was not considered an American citizen. We got in line and discovered to our disappointment that we were in the slowest line. Everyone else was moving but us. An attendant came over and said, "Here - go here" and we obeyed (again) and then watched as the line we had just come from start to move and we were stuck again. We ended up being the next to last people being served and we thought we were doomed. Well, I did. My optimistic husband, said, "You don't know if we've missed it yet," but it was after 8 at this point, and we were still not through customs.

Grace became an American citizen, and I couldn't even snap a picture (official rules), but we said, "Yeah! You're a US citizen!" and the man who helped us was very nice. Although he did say, "You know -- you didn't have to go through this line. You could have gone through that one over there." And he pointed to the area where it was totally cleared out of people!

We rushed then to baggage claim, paid the $5 for the cart. That's one thing China has on us -- they offer those carts for free!  And we hustled to the Customs area. We were the last, and the man just smiled, took our declarations card and sent us through.  It was now 8:15, and we saw a little desk with a Continental person and we told her how much we'd like to make it home. She started flying her fingers over the keyboard and said, "You're in luck. The flight is delayed by 15 minutes and you will make it if you hurry." She grabbed our bags right there and we flew! We picked up the train -- headed in the wrong direction! -- but made it to the gate at about 8:45. The flight was totally packed, and we found out as we boarded that people were waiting at the gate hoping to get on the flight. God got us home folks, that's all I can say, and we were so grateful!

Pictures were being snapped and we hope to post some later today.  We're a bit groggy and Grace spent the night as if it was her mid-day so she took in a long nap but not much more last night. Pat and I tag-teamed a bit on the sleeping, but it will be rough-going for a while as we get her adjusted to the time change. A foreign correspondent was in our group and she travels a great bit and said, "They say, and I have found to be true, that for every hour time change, it takes a day to adjust." That means we have about 12 days to get Grace on our schedule and we'd appreciate your continued prayers in this regard. 

It's 7 AM and we kept the family up way too late last night with giving presents and getting to know Grace. I hope they sleep in this morning, and I hope Pat and I can take a few naps today and start to mess up, if you will, Grace's sleeping pattern.  I've never been happier to be home, however, with fresh running water, ice for our drinks. fresh fruit to eat, and even lettuce to eat -- all things we didn't have on our trip.  And of course, the best is being home with my dear boys who have been waiting longer than us to see their sweet sister.  

We'll keep you posted about her adjustments and ours!  Home sweet home!

Most of our adoption group left early this morning.  We said our goodbyes last night after our last meal together, and then we hit the hay.  Grace woke up at 7:00am, and Sharon was able to coax her back to sleep until about 9:00am. 

After a leisurely breakfast, Sharon and I tag teamed 90 minute massages.  While we sat with our feet soaking in a hot concoction of water of some other dark elixir, they worked on our neck, back, and arms.  After thirty minutes of this, they worked on our feet - thirty minutes per leg.  It was a little bit of heaven, and all for ten bucks each.   This massage was not only thirty minutes longer and ten dollars cheaper than our massage in Nanchang, it was much better in quality.  Sharon did make the comment that a daily massage like this for about one week would probably cure all that ails her.

(Sharon)  As Pat got his massage I walked around with Grace doing a little bit of picture taking, sightseeing, shopping, and searching for a shop Jaime Cook told me about where she met someone she felt was a true believer.  After several attempts to find her shop this week and even more wrong side streets today, I finally came across her shop.  She greeted me with a smile, and yes, Jaime, remembered you well!  She asked, "Are you a Christian too?" and from there we sprung into a wonderful conversation.  She lit up with joy to know I was a believer and in broken English told me that she prays every day for God to bring her believers. She said that every day He does!  I was her first that day and she was sad I didn't have more days there to fellowship with her (I was too). She said she has been a Christian for just 5 years and couldn't believe I had been a Christian for 40.  She said that lately she has really been learning so much because she is reading her Bible every day and is amazed that more and more comes to life for her.  I told her that it will always be that way - that the word of God will continue to teach you and show you new things and that this never stops.  She showed me her  Bibles. One was in English and she said it is hard, very hard to understand. I scanned through it and even recited the Old Testament books in song which cracked her up. It is from Genesis to Revelation.  I asked how she learns and how she is taught and she said, "Through emails!"  She then pointed to her computer screen and showed me how many people write to her. She gave me her email address and took mine as well.  She said "It is very hard because I am only christian in my family." I asked if they don't like it and she shook her head sadly "no".  But her husband, who is also not a Christian, is starting to go to the church with her (the one pictured below) and she says, "not a Christian - yet! I keep praying!!"  I asked, "Is it hard to get Bibles?"  and she said, "Oh no, the church has LOTS of Bibles to give!"  I bought things from her (how could I not!) and hurried to reach my rendevous with Pat.  Can I understand these stories from the past two days and meld them with the books I have read and what I know to be true from the Voice of the Martyrs?  No, but I know that when I hugged Judy good-bye (picture is below), I know that my soul bore witness of the spirit. Oh, and yes, I did ask her, too, how we could pray for her and she said, "That we be kept safe from bad things and harm."  I'll leave you to ponder these events as well and to pray, pray for our brothers and sisters in China. Some who are in peril, and some who may find themselves in peril some day as they grow closer to our Lord and shine His light.

(PAT) When Sharon returned from her massage we took Grace for her first swim.  The pool was beautiful, and Grace LOVED her time in the pool.  She leaned back, smiled a lot, and was nonplussed when her face got wet.  Swimming is a very important part of the Fitzpatrick culture, so we were pleased that she fit in swimmingly.

It is hard to believe that just two weeks ago Grace was waking up in a different crib (or box) to the smells and sounds of her foster home without any notion that her life would turn upside down.  A long bus ride with five other babies, a chorus of crying babies in the gotcha room, and then, as if by magic, she becomes a Fitzpatrick. 

Our five children are a true blessing to us, and we look forward to being reunited with our four older boys.  This adoption journey is as much theirs as it is ours, and it would have been wonderful to have them with us here.  But short of this, we, and they, look forward to Friday night - their own "gotcha" moment.  We also look forward to the rest of our life together with Grace.  While I am writing this, the movie "Twins" with Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny Devito is playing in the background.  Arnold's character, Julius, finds out when he is in his thirties that he has a twin brother, and he journeys to America to find him.  He finds him in a prison and breaks the news that they are brothers.  He also tells him that he loves him.  This struck me in a new way this time because, like Julius, we fell in love with Grace even before we were matched with her, and her brothers can't wait to express their love for her in person.

We are going to retire early tonight.  It's 9:30pm and Grace is down for the evening.  We wake at 5:00am to begin our journey home.  Pray for us - that God gives us stamina and that Grace does well.  In all, we will be traveling for 25.5 hours (including layovers).   But, as one of Sharon's childhood friends used to say, "we can handle anything that is temporary."  We hope that those sitting around us will adopt the same mantra.

This is our last blog while in China.  Thank you all for following along, for praying us through it, for crying and laughing and smiling right along with us.  We are thankful beyond words that you have joined in our joy, and we are thankful to God that he has given us Grace for the journey.  You have been true friends indeed!

God bless,

Pat (and Sharon)

Sharon and I had a relaxing morning, but it started at 7am.  One of us was required to be by the phone from 9:30-11:00 in order to receive a phone call from our CCAI adoption representative in the event that there were problems with our visa request for Grace.  Sharon took this opportunity to do some more exploring of the shops on the island.  She’s done a great job buying cute outfits for Grace and some souvenirs for our boys.   I would go into detail here on the gifts, but they are surprises for the boys.

We got a call from our CCAI rep at around 10:30am letting us know that everything was great with our visa application.  We will be getting the visa tomorrow.  We will also be going through the oath ceremony tomorrow which marks the final official thing we need to do for Grace to become a US citizen.

At 11am today we went to the Pearl Markets with our adoption group.  The Pearl Market is within a massive five story mall surrounded by a number of other shops.  We have never seen such a site.  Five stories of jewelry – colored beads, pearls, jade, turquoise, etc.  We went to the fifth story pearl store because, according to our guide, the higher up you went in the mall the better the deals.  Sharon was able to get some pretty freshwater earrings and necklaces.  At some point during the whole pearl shopping experience I blurted out, “do you have anything here for men?”  I was just joking, of course, and the rest of the men joined in on the laugh.  One of the employees, however, immediately started handing each man a bottled water.  Like the pearls, it was fresh water!

Following our time in the pearl market we went to a store that sells CD’s and DVD’s.  We bought a number of new release movies for about $1.50 each.  We also found some nice children’s Chinese music and some Chinese folk music. We broke away from our adoption group and ate at a McDonalds.  After the quick meal we walked past a long line of outdoor shops where the owners tried to woo us with shrimp tempura on a stick, scorpion on a stick, squid on a stick, and chicken claws.  See the pictures of the assortment of foods.   Neither of us was in the mood to brave the assortment of foods. 

Instead we hailed a taxi and told him, “Bie Tien Uh.”  I was pleased that he actually understood that I was saying “White Swan.”  In about ten minutes we were at the hotel.  We paid the cab driver the 8 yuen (about $1.15) and went up to our room for some R&R.

Grace was happy today, and here's a new first --she actually showed her affection for us by leaning into us for some kisses.  She gives big, open mouth kisses, and it is a pleasure to see this side of her.  No belly laughs yet, but we know these will come too.

Later this afternoon we joined our adoption group for the traditional “Red Couch Photos” in the White Swan Hotel.  We had no problem getting our six little babies to sit on a red couch without their new parents.  Getting them to sit their without crying was another matter!

After an Italian dinner, Sharon and I are relaxing again in the hotel room.  We are anxious to get home – to introduce Grace to her brothers and to her new life – a life beyond hotel rooms, all-you-can-eat breakfast buffets, and Chinese television.   But we are also content even as Grace is content.  As I have written this blog (twice actually since the first time it froze on me and I lost it all) Grace has been content to play with an open box of diapers.  When we call her name she turns her head to us and smiles, wrinkling her nose to give us the most in her smile.

And speaking of diapers, Grace has finally produced well-formed bowel movements.  If Grace weren’t our fifth child we might look at this as another photo op, but, well, let’s just say, “been there, done that.”  We are thrilled that the medicine is working. 

The doctor said that if we give her too much it will cause constipation.  Hmmm…maybe this would be even more effective than the plastic pants for our long flights home.

Last night we watched a bit of Chinese TV.  Women in a game show were racing each other barefoot across a rushing but shallow river.  Adding humor and challenge to the game, each woman had to carry a young, squirming, squealing pig.  Hilarious. 

Our bus ride was bittersweet.  We were fine leaving Nanchang because we have heard such great things about Guangzhou, but leaving Nanchang means leaving Grace's home province.  Can you hear my sentimental sigh?  Leaving Nanchang also means leaving Evelyn, our CCAI local representative.  She was a wonderful guide, and she took a special shine to Grace, especially near the end of our trip. 

On the bus ride to the airport Grace was all smiles, and every time she smiled at Evelyn Grace would wrinkle up her nose and make Evelyn laugh.  Evelyn made us promise that we would send her a picture of Grace's smile.  Our traveling companion parents were also surprised to see Grace's smile. Up until now, she has saved it for private times in our room so it's been fun to see her warming up to people.  We've really been enjoying these new friends of ours as well with many times of laughter and fellowship.

While we waited at the airport, we were singled out by a Chinese woman and her mother who kept pointing at Grace and saying "So cute!"  They kept hovering and getting closer until they finally reached out their hands to take her from us (See picture below).  They really got a charge out of it when Grace flashed her million dollar wrinkled up nose smile and laughed and laughed and clapped with joy.  Her older son was with them and spoke English and he said, "How long you have her with you?"  We told hinm for about 5 days and he said, "That incredible because she look so happy with you.  She seems to really love you." 

Our 80 minute plane ride from Nanchang to Guangzhou went smoothly. We sat next to a young woman who was intensely curious about why we adopted, and why from China.  She spoke passable English, so we had a great conversation.   At the end of the flight she wanted her picture taken with us.  Grace couldn't have done better on her first plane ride. She ate her way through with Cheerios and bread until 10 minutes before landing at which point she fussed for a few minutes and then fell fast asleep.Hopefully this is a precursor to our 25.5 hours of flying and layovers that we will be doing on Friday the 18th.

Since Guangzhou is where the US consulate is,  all Americans who are adopting this month from every Chinese province have converged, most staying at the White Swan Hotel.  In Nanchang, the only white people we ever saw were the few from our adoption group and Norwegian families who were also adopting from the Jiangxi Province.  Here, it seems that there are hundreds of American families - all with little babies, mostly girls.

We were thrilled to be here after all of these years about hearing about Guangzhou and our hotel room has a beautiful view of the city. After a quick walking tour of the shopping district around the White Swan Hotel we ordered Papa Johns pizza and have been hanging in the hotel room ever since.  Tomorrow we are visiting some sites around Guangzhou, but for now we are completely content to relax and hopefully get a long night's rest. 

Signing off for the evening!  Good morning to all of you.

We, along with many of you, have prayed numerous prayers for Grace since before she was even conceived.  God has heard and answered every single prayer of ours.  Oh, God doesn't always answer with a yes, but He always answers in the best way for His children. We have felt that confidence but now I am even more confident of His utmost sovereignty over not only our lives but over our daughter's as well.  He answered "no" to many prayers including a speedup, the lack of need to re-do our fingerprints, home studies, and I171H's.  Nor did he give us her little finding outfit that would have been a rare treasure or a note that may have been in with her when she was found.  But He answered YES to the many snags we had along the way -- some that have been blogged about and others that we have suffered without writing about.

And He answered with a big YES the first prayer I remember being prayed for our Grace.  It wasn't even my prayer, but when my friend Mary Eloise prayed it, I knew it was THE prayer to be prayed and it escaped my lips countless times over the past 3 1/2 years.  She prayed that Grace would be "a magnet for affection and get lots of hugs, love, and holding."  Indeed, this has been the case with Grace as best we can surmise.  She was held nearly constantly and bonded with the Foster Mother whose picture with her speaks volumes of love and care.  Today was the first day that she didn't whimper "Mama.  Baba.  Mama.  Baba"  when she was tired or sad. She's well on her way to accepting us as her new and forever Mama and Baba (Daddy) and we are overwhelmed with thankfulness that God answered this first  prayer of ours with a yes. 

To those of you reading who have adopted children of your own, we know that God has given you and your children exactly what they needed as well. He does all things well and for every whispered prayer, He sees and knows just what is best.  We gratefully acknowledge our total lack of understanding about what we needed and what Grace needed and most gratefully accept this awesome gift of His in answering prayer #1 with a big YES. 

Sharon

(Pat) First, I would like to thank all of you for praying for our tongues.  We are already much improved, although it appears to still be bothering Grace when she eats. 

Our group took a half day tour of a village thirty minutes outside of Nanchang this morning.  Except for the fact that CCAI probably takes adoption groups there on occasion, most have probably not seen a real live white person.  This particular village has its share of wealthy people, but is made up primarily of rice farmers and their families.  We watched one woman washing her clothes in the small pond outside of her home (her home is actually built so that the back end is over the lake).  A few minutes later I noticed a man fishing in the same lake, a vegetable gardener collecting water in large buckets from the lake to water her crops, and a man who had just slaughtered a dog washing the entrails and other scraps into the lake.  We often talk of multi-purpose rooms and fields in the educational environment, and as wild as I have let my imagination run as a school administrator, my "out of the box" thinking has nothing on this little village hard at work.  That being said, they also use human excrement to fertilize their rice fields, and my guess is that they have never sat through a biology class lesson on the complex life cycle of flukes, tapeworms, and other parasitic worms that can have a hay day in such an environment.

We brought candy and toys for the kids of the community, and they were all smiles and warmly welcomed us onto their streets.  Some even posed for us.  Most of the pictures of people that you will see in our gallery were taken only after we asked their permission. 

(Sharon)It was an amazing walk through real China and we could not seem to take enough pictures.  Yes, we saw dog being cut up and we saw dog pets that were either skinny as rails, or pregnant or nursing.  We saw a pen that held ducks that was also used as an outhouse. The sights and, as you can imagine, the smells, were powerful!  Grace calmly walked along with Pat carrying her in her little Snugli. The Snugly seems to work great for Pat. For me, it really hurts my neck, so Grace gets lots of Daddy time  :-) 

(Pat) From our jaunt to the countryside we made our way back to Nanchang for lunch.  Our group decided on Pizza Hut, so we headed for the shopping district.  I was impressed by the wealth in this area of the city, and except for the homogeneous crowds and Chinese characters on every storefront it reminded me a lot of the shopping districts in New York City.   Having just come from the village, the disparity between the two was striking.

(Sharon) Our boys today told us to take more pictures.  HA. We're actually taking tons of pics but sparing you all the boring details (for the most part!).  We were able to SKYPE them today again and it's always wonderful to see them and my mother.  They often just ooh and ahh over Grace -- "Look! She's smiling!" or "Look! She's eating a cheerio!"  and they want us to hold her up and just look at her.  They can't wait for us to come home, and to tell you the truth, as wonderful as this adventure is, we'd like nothing more than to just bring her home and start our new adventure at home! But we are also loving this place, its people, and its beauty. It's a rough and rugged beauty with wizened faces, gritty buildings, and hard working good people. 

As I write this, Pat and I have tag teamed off on the blog.  I was enjoying an hour message - not too hard, not too soft -- very methodically working through my sore muscles from my head to my ankles. The feet is something we're saving for and hour long massage tomorrow. We hear it's quite a treat! Now, Pat is on the bed in our room getting his hour message. She laughed when she saw his large frame and shook her head with a smile and a sigh as if to say, "Well, let's make a go of it!".  She's getting a real workout and putting all of the weight of her small frame into his message. I decided to go first because I knew he'd wear her out and I didn't want to feel guilty about her being tired out  during mine!  He seems to be really enjoying it and we've put on the Chinese TV to help keep her entertained a bit during these 2 hours.

Grace had another first today -- tasting ice cream!  We stopped off at Haagen Daz on the way back to our hotel.  Pat and I shared a small cup of Mango icecream.  Haagen Daz is expensive even in China at $4 for a tiny scoop but we wanted to experience!  Grace kept reaching for it. When we finally were outside and able to give her a first taste, she wrinkled her face up in pain as if we had given her lemon juice!  I doubt she's ever had anything cold in her life.  I'm sure ice cream will warm on her though!  Since everything she eats or drinks has to either be nearly hot or very warm, we bought a thermos tonight at the local grocery store. At 16 RMB (2.75 dollars) it was certainly a better deal than our Haagen Daz icecream, that's for sure!

Grace went down early last night and was up at 3:40AM.  I was still not feeling well so Pat, in the wonderful Daddy and husband role, took Grace out and gave me some more time to sleep. He did an amazing job yesterday covering for me and we were glad both of us weren't sick. It's also fantastic that Grace really likes her Daddy! Later today, when I was feeling better, I returned the favor and he got an extended naptime to make up for those stolen hours. 
 
We went to the TangWang Pavilion today. It’s apparently the “hot tourist spot” in Nanchang.  It’s basically a big building with some pretty gardens that was originally built by the 23rd son of the first emperor of the Tang Dynasty in around 657 AD after the emperor banished him from his sight because "he would never amount to anything." Those of you who love history will probably hate this blog because I was pretty much out of it for the tour and don’t really know what we were seeing!  I was having trouble staying on my feet – pretty woozy, and weak from yesterday’s sickness.  And it was hot, so as we went up the tiny staircases I was struggling just to keep from fainting.  But it was pretty and a nice morning out.  Did we tell you that Nanchang is called one of the “four furnaces” in China? It’s because it has 85% humidity for the entire month of August and temperatures of 105-110 and is located in a valley so it really heats up. We were feeling it today, that’s for sure!
 
We then headed off to a restaurant that Pat and the others really enjoyed.  It looked like a great spread, but I opted only for the rice and steamed egg – yummy – basically the same food our baby is eating. But my stomach thanked me for it!

Today we have loaded pictures of the pavilion, Grace’s first outing in a stroller, her first bath, and yes – her first time sitting up by herself!  She’s been like a weebly wobbly, and then all of a sudden tonight she’s a pro at sitting. We had heard that these little children make incredible developmental strides, but it’s amazing to watch.

The other exciting thing for us happened when someone came to our room to fix our  internet service. The lady reached for Grace and held her and Grace started to cry and turned around and looked for me with a face that could only be described as, “Help! You’re supposed to be holding me – not her!”   It was our first peek at attachment and it was wonderful! 

And finally, we received pictures back from a camera we had sent to Grace in a care package last month. We had few hopes to get back any pics from the foster family. We, of course, were hoping there would be some of her house or of the family she had been staying with.  We didn’t get that, but we did get an entire roll of Grace and the foster mother back at the orphanage on the day that we got Grace.  The foster families had to drop off the children at noon that day at the orphanage to make it to our 5 PM appointment to receive the children 2 ½ hours away in Nanchang. In the photos you can see how very loved Grace was by the smiles on the foster mother’s face.  You can also see in 2 pictures the absolute sorrow and angst she went through as she knew she was moments away from not seeing Grace again.  The pictures are touching, telling, and a real treasure. And did we tell you that we have the Finding Ad for Grace? It’s the advertisement put into the newspaper to see if anyone has any info about her parents.  It has a picture of her at probably 3 weeks old or less. Precious. Priceless.  Even if it is smaller than the size of a postage stamp!

Thank you everyone for your prayers for me.  I’m feeling MUCH better this evening. Pat and I and Grace all have some little sores on our tongues which aren’t too pleasant that you can pray about now!  And thank you for all of your comments. It’s killing me not to respond to each of you individually and hope you all understand.  Please keep the comments coming!  We smile and laugh and get so encouraged by all of your comments. What a blessing you are to us, and we are humbled that you are sticking with us on this journey! 

 

Sharon


A brief note from Pat: Grace went to bed last night at 8:30 - much earlier than the first two nights.  No surprise that she woke up at 3:30am.  Sharon was still feeling sick, and I wanted her to sleep so I took Grace out of the room when it was clear that she wasn't the least bit interested in sleeping.  I put her in a baby carrier and went for a walk outside the hotel.  The weather was a comfortable 80 degrees with a slight breeze, and the streets were quiet for the first time in my remembering.  Over the next 2.5 hours Grace and I watched the city wake up.  Men and women walked or jogged by us, a few women pulling large carts laden with their goods trekked by, and most looked at Grace and me with a smile.  I had one young couple approach me and try to engage in conversation with me.   The man could speak a little English, and the woman, after studying me and Grace exclaimed, "She Chinese!"  After I said, "yes," she thought a minute and then said as if she had figured it out, "her mother Chinese?"  I said "yes" again, and thought about just letting them think that her Chinese mother and I made baby Grace, but I then threw the adoption word out at them.  I think the man understood, but we said our pleasant goodbyes at any rate. 

Sharon slept or rested most of the day today.  Her stomach is less queezy now, but she went to sleep when Grace went down for the night at 8:30pm.  When the two of them were sleeping during the afternoon nap time I decided to take a walk around the city.  I spent one hour walking around one city block, and during that time I snapped a number of photos.  Twelve of them are included below.  There were hundreds of people shots that I would have loved to get, but out of deference to the people, I refrained.   As you can imagine, I already stood out on the crowded streets as the only white guy.  It took me back to when I was a kid living in Japan.  As a toe-head, I was the subject of a lot of gawking and shameless pointing.  Can't say I blame them either.  During our first year of marriage Sharon and I stumbled into a hotel that was hosting the NOAH convention.   I am embarrassed to admit that I did my fair share of staring at that time as well.  For those who don't know, "NOAH" stands for the "National Organization of Albino Humans."

For dinner, Grace and I joined the rest of the adoption group at a local restaurant.  This was my chance to test my ability to handle the spicy hot local food from Nanchang.  To  my surprise, Grace handled a high chair very well, and she really loved the pumpkin soup, the steamed egg, and the white rice.  I say that I was surprised by her ability to stay in a high chair because she was raised by a foster mother who never put her down.  She hasn't yet learned how to sit up, how to roll over, or what to do when on her tummy.  The foster mother did, however, begin a potty training regiment when she started caring for Grace at ten days old.  Every morning, immediately after Grace awakened, the foster mother would hold her over the potty and utter some command until Grace had a bowel movement.  I taught my second dog how to defecate on command, a story in and of itself, but this is probably one of those tricks that we're not going to keep doing with Grace. 

Back to the restaurant: You may find it interesting that I ate and loved everything that was offered to me tonight, and nothing was too hot or too spicy.  Perhaps they save the really hot stuff just for the locals?  The food was delicious, and as soon as Sharon is up for it, I want to take her back to the same restaurant for some of their milder fare.

Oh - one more thing.  Today we had a local pediatrician do a compulsory exam on Grace.  Everything checked out.  We asked about the dark coloring in her belly button, and our translator explained that it is just dirt.  She went on to say that they do not clean the belly button of babies until they are two years old.  She further explained that they believe that if it is cleaned before the age of two the babies would get colds more easily :-)  So, if you see Grace's belly button in any pictures, please know that in fifteen months we will deal with that dirty little patch of skin :-)

Before I blog this entry, I wanted all of you to know that we emailed a short gotcha day video to our wonderful son Adam who put it up in the "special video moments" part of our website.  Click HERE to go directly to it.

After our morning ordeal yesterday with Grace's diarrhea, projectile vomiting, official adoption business, and wardrobe malfunctions Grace napped from 3-5 in the afternoon.  I stayed in the hotel room with her while Sharon took off with the group to go shopping at a WalMart Supercenter.  It is almost too hard to picture, but the store was three stories large with "flat" escalators that allow patrons to navigate from one floor to the next with their shopping carts.  There was even merchandise laid out in between the up and down escalators and on either side of them.  The grocery section of the WalMart Supercenter had every imaginable food product including live animals like turtles.  So a zoo and a store all in one.

Leap frog forward to dinner last night:  Our tour guide/local adoption coordinator had told us that the third floor Chinese restaurant served french fries, sweet and sour pork, and a number of other more "Americanized" Chinese foods.  We decided to give it a try for a change of taste from the hotel's buffet-style array of Nanchang specialties like chicken claws and fish head soup.

We went to the third floor restaurant, and no patrons were there.  We asked the waitress, "is this the Chinese restaurant?" and she said, "no," shook her head, and led us to the balcony overlooking the foyer.  From there she pointed to the buffet restaurant below.  After we struggled to communicate through pantomime and English (I'm a bit rusty on my Mandarin) we managed to get seated and she handed us a menu.

One look through the menu and it was clear that there was no mention of french fries, sweet and sour pork, or anything else we could recognize as interesting to us from a palatable point of view.  There were, however, plenty of interesting dishes that we weren't about to try:  jelly fish skin, filet of sea cucumber, and red bird's nest soup to name a few.  For those who don't know, bird's nest soup is made using the nest of a specific bird made from the spittle of the bird.  It is considered a delicacy, but at 700 yuen (about a hundred US dollars per entree, so I passed.

We slipped out of the restaurant when the waitress wasn't looking and ran into our tour coordinator.  She told us that the restaurant would make what we wanted, but we would simply need to order it custom.  She called them with the order and we went back up to our seats and had sweet and sour pork, french fries, and fried rice.  Each of the three dishes was enough to feed a family of eight, and so with contented stomachs we left a lot of food behind.  I thought about asking for a doggy bag, but then rethought it.  If the waitress understood the word "doggy" she might have come back to the table with yet another entree (Ha!)

Grace enjoyed her first taste of Americana with her introduction to french fries, and we had the restaurant all to ourselves.  All in all, it was a wonderful meal.

One more thing - you may not be aware of the fact that the Jiangxi Province is the capital of the porcelain industry.  The fact that Sharon was hugging our own piece of porcelain a few minutes ago and losing her entire breakfast most definitely has nothing to do with this factoid, but the parallels were not lost on me.  Pray for Sharon!  She probably has a bug or some food poisoning.  She feels better now that her stomach is empty, and she's been eyeing my big bag of American candy with focused determination.  Maybe I'll give her one piece of dark chocolate.  I've heard that it possesses some medicinal qualities.

She also just mentioned that she is very glad she brought a jar of peanut butter - making the claim that she could live on it if need be for the next eleven days.