Sunday, April 16, 2006
Friday, April 14, 2006
Our Last Full Day in China
Our Last Full Day in China
It’s hard to believe that we’ve been home for over a week now. On the one hand, it seems like a very long time since we left China, but we’re also totally still adjusting to life all together as a family. Sorry I’ve been so slow to finish blogging about our trip. It’s been very busy, we’ve been trying to figure out this jetlag thing and, to top it off, my laptop died over the weekend.
Our last full day in China featured two activities: Shopping and a trip to the US Embassy’s visa office. In the morning, we returned to Shamian Island for bargain hunting. There were several small gift items we had in mind and did a halfway decent job of tracking them down.
I was especially interested in watching the finger painters working on the street. By finger painters, I don’t mean little kids messing around with water colors. The finger painter would dip the side of his hand into some black ink spread on a paper plate, or perhaps just the side of his pinkie or a fingernail (his pinkie fingernail was especially long) and then use that ink to create a painting on a small piece of paper. Ink on his finger applied “just so” created a bamboo branch. Ink on his palm might form fog-covered mountains. Ink on his fingernail could become individual bricks on a bridge over a river with a small junk floating in the foreground. And the artists worked so fast!
While we were in the area, Laura and Jeannette returned to The White Swan Hotel and managed to get a few photos of MJ on the famous "red couch," where many groups of adopted babies have their pictures taken.
As soon as we got back to the hotel, Paul Lyman, his father-in-law Dan and I jumped in a cab and headed to the electronics mall in Guangzhou. They had visited there the day before and so I coerced them into a second trip. What an amazing place! They said that there were three buildings of little stores selling nothing but electronics . . . I wouldn’t know, we only had an hour and didn’t even see one entire floor. I won’t detail the things we bought since it might mess up someone’s Christmas surprises but let it suffice to say that there were some great deals to be had. US brand names, it appeared, were not necessarily priced any better than what you might find here in this country after doing some careful shopping but the Chinese brands were often dirt cheap.
I stopped at one booth (some of the businesses were nothing more than display cases mounted in the walls of the hallways) and asked how much their thumb (or flash) drives were. Immediately, the salesgirl asked if I wanted knock-offs and opened a drawer. They were selling 8 GB fake Sony thumb drives for 120 yuan, or $15! After some fairly speedy negotiations—made more complicated by the language barrier—the price ended up at $10. Eight gigabytes! Now, when I got home, I did discover that at least one of the “8 GB” drives I’d purchased was only 4 gig but, still, that’s a pretty good deal.
[Editorial Note upon returning home: Turns out at these wonderful bargains were total junk. At best, one of the thumb drives actually worked for more than a week or so and most of them didn't work at all. Of the two cheap MP3 players I bought, only one worked. Sigh.]
At another place, I checked out some MP3 players and found one that had the most phenomenal sound I’d ever heard. Not to mention that it was extremely cool to look at. Paul, Dan and I stood there and negotiated on buying several of them. We didn’t get the price cut down by much, perhaps 10%, but we were ready to buy. And then I looked in my wallet and discovered that I didn’t have enough yuan to buy even one of them, let alone two! Paul was the only one who had enough cash on hand to complete the purchase. Sheesh!
I was so busy bargain hunting that time rapidly crept up on us. We had to be back at the hotel at 3:00 sharp to leave for the embassy offices. Missing this appointment might mean not leaving China or not getting to keep MelodyJoy. This was perhaps the “highest stakes” appointment of our trip and, as has been documented earlier, being on time is not always a strength for us. We finally grabbed a taxi at about 2:40 and it wasn’t a short drive back to the hotel. To make a long story short, we pulled up to the hotel at 3:00 on the dot as everyone was boarding the busses.
(By the way, the fare for this taxi ride, the longest of our ten days in Guangzhou, was about 30 yuan . . . less than $4. In most US cities, doesn’t it cost four bucks just to start the meter?)
When we got to the embassy building, we all went through security and then sat in a large waiting room. There were perhaps sixty other families there so, needless to say, it was pretty darn noisy in there. Our guides had us come to the counter each in turn and they submitted our paperwork for the babies’ visas. After awhile, one of the embassy employees managed to get our attention and we all gathered in a mob around her while she led us in an oath to the United States on behalf of our soon-to-be not-Chinese-citizens.
We also each received the fabled “brown envelope” with dire instructions to never, never, never open or lose the envelope. Opening or losing it prior to presenting it to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) at our port of entry to the US would mean a quick trip right back to China.
Our final dinner in China was at the hotel’s Chinese restaurant and was perhaps the best one of our trip, partly because it was the only time we ate a dinner twice in the same restaurant and we had started to figure out which dishes we liked.
Afterwards, I ran to the little collection of shops next door, determined to spend the last of our yuan. Did a pretty good job, too (though I later discovered that Jeannette had a wad of yuan in one of her pockets), buying a decorative theatrical mask for Phillip, a bracelet made of jade turtles for Jameson, a red necktie for $1.25 and a snuff bottle. Throughout Beijing and Guangzhou, it was easy to find these small glass bottles, each with a different scene painted on the inside using a small, curved brush inserted through the neck of the bottle. I had been planning all along to buy some of these for gifts. At this store, they offered to write someone’s name inside the bottle so I had them write Nan Cai Jing in Chinese characters next to the painting, for a gift to MelodyJoy. For a price, you could actually get a person’s picture painted inside one of the bottles and I wonder if we’ll regret not doing something like that while in Guangzhou.
After packing our bags for pick-up—Jeannette did most of the work of getting everything stuffed into the suitcases—we turned in for a short night, knowing we would have to leave for the airport at 5:45 in the morning.
It’s hard to believe that we’ve been home for over a week now. On the one hand, it seems like a very long time since we left China, but we’re also totally still adjusting to life all together as a family. Sorry I’ve been so slow to finish blogging about our trip. It’s been very busy, we’ve been trying to figure out this jetlag thing and, to top it off, my laptop died over the weekend.
Our last full day in China featured two activities: Shopping and a trip to the US Embassy’s visa office. In the morning, we returned to Shamian Island for bargain hunting. There were several small gift items we had in mind and did a halfway decent job of tracking them down.
I was especially interested in watching the finger painters working on the street. By finger painters, I don’t mean little kids messing around with water colors. The finger painter would dip the side of his hand into some black ink spread on a paper plate, or perhaps just the side of his pinkie or a fingernail (his pinkie fingernail was especially long) and then use that ink to create a painting on a small piece of paper. Ink on his finger applied “just so” created a bamboo branch. Ink on his palm might form fog-covered mountains. Ink on his fingernail could become individual bricks on a bridge over a river with a small junk floating in the foreground. And the artists worked so fast!
While we were in the area, Laura and Jeannette returned to The White Swan Hotel and managed to get a few photos of MJ on the famous "red couch," where many groups of adopted babies have their pictures taken.
As soon as we got back to the hotel, Paul Lyman, his father-in-law Dan and I jumped in a cab and headed to the electronics mall in Guangzhou. They had visited there the day before and so I coerced them into a second trip. What an amazing place! They said that there were three buildings of little stores selling nothing but electronics . . . I wouldn’t know, we only had an hour and didn’t even see one entire floor. I won’t detail the things we bought since it might mess up someone’s Christmas surprises but let it suffice to say that there were some great deals to be had. US brand names, it appeared, were not necessarily priced any better than what you might find here in this country after doing some careful shopping but the Chinese brands were often dirt cheap.
I stopped at one booth (some of the businesses were nothing more than display cases mounted in the walls of the hallways) and asked how much their thumb (or flash) drives were. Immediately, the salesgirl asked if I wanted knock-offs and opened a drawer. They were selling 8 GB fake Sony thumb drives for 120 yuan, or $15! After some fairly speedy negotiations—made more complicated by the language barrier—the price ended up at $10. Eight gigabytes! Now, when I got home, I did discover that at least one of the “8 GB” drives I’d purchased was only 4 gig but, still, that’s a pretty good deal.
[Editorial Note upon returning home: Turns out at these wonderful bargains were total junk. At best, one of the thumb drives actually worked for more than a week or so and most of them didn't work at all. Of the two cheap MP3 players I bought, only one worked. Sigh.]
At another place, I checked out some MP3 players and found one that had the most phenomenal sound I’d ever heard. Not to mention that it was extremely cool to look at. Paul, Dan and I stood there and negotiated on buying several of them. We didn’t get the price cut down by much, perhaps 10%, but we were ready to buy. And then I looked in my wallet and discovered that I didn’t have enough yuan to buy even one of them, let alone two! Paul was the only one who had enough cash on hand to complete the purchase. Sheesh!
I was so busy bargain hunting that time rapidly crept up on us. We had to be back at the hotel at 3:00 sharp to leave for the embassy offices. Missing this appointment might mean not leaving China or not getting to keep MelodyJoy. This was perhaps the “highest stakes” appointment of our trip and, as has been documented earlier, being on time is not always a strength for us. We finally grabbed a taxi at about 2:40 and it wasn’t a short drive back to the hotel. To make a long story short, we pulled up to the hotel at 3:00 on the dot as everyone was boarding the busses.
(By the way, the fare for this taxi ride, the longest of our ten days in Guangzhou, was about 30 yuan . . . less than $4. In most US cities, doesn’t it cost four bucks just to start the meter?)
When we got to the embassy building, we all went through security and then sat in a large waiting room. There were perhaps sixty other families there so, needless to say, it was pretty darn noisy in there. Our guides had us come to the counter each in turn and they submitted our paperwork for the babies’ visas. After awhile, one of the embassy employees managed to get our attention and we all gathered in a mob around her while she led us in an oath to the United States on behalf of our soon-to-be not-Chinese-citizens.
We also each received the fabled “brown envelope” with dire instructions to never, never, never open or lose the envelope. Opening or losing it prior to presenting it to the Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS) at our port of entry to the US would mean a quick trip right back to China.
Our final dinner in China was at the hotel’s Chinese restaurant and was perhaps the best one of our trip, partly because it was the only time we ate a dinner twice in the same restaurant and we had started to figure out which dishes we liked.
Afterwards, I ran to the little collection of shops next door, determined to spend the last of our yuan. Did a pretty good job, too (though I later discovered that Jeannette had a wad of yuan in one of her pockets), buying a decorative theatrical mask for Phillip, a bracelet made of jade turtles for Jameson, a red necktie for $1.25 and a snuff bottle. Throughout Beijing and Guangzhou, it was easy to find these small glass bottles, each with a different scene painted on the inside using a small, curved brush inserted through the neck of the bottle. I had been planning all along to buy some of these for gifts. At this store, they offered to write someone’s name inside the bottle so I had them write Nan Cai Jing in Chinese characters next to the painting, for a gift to MelodyJoy. For a price, you could actually get a person’s picture painted inside one of the bottles and I wonder if we’ll regret not doing something like that while in Guangzhou.
After packing our bags for pick-up—Jeannette did most of the work of getting everything stuffed into the suitcases—we turned in for a short night, knowing we would have to leave for the airport at 5:45 in the morning.
Friday, April 07, 2006
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Monday, April 03, 2006
Shop ‘til You Drop
Shop ‘til you drop is an overstatement but souvenir shopping was today’s predominant activity, both near the hotel this morning and on Shamian Island near the White Swan Hotel this afternoon. Jeannette and Laura were on the hunt for bargains . . . it was pretty hard to judge what was a good deal. (I bought one item today for about $1.25 and got back to the hotel to find that I had purchased an almost identical item for $8 while in Beijing. Only the labels were different.) I sometimes just didn’t have the energy, especially toward the end of the day, to haggle. You realized that you were arguing over just a dollar or two and after awhile the weariness and humidity got the better of you. Tomorrow: The grand shopping finale.
Dinner was at a well-known Thai restaurant called The Banana Leaf in a very upscale mall near the Friendship Store. The food was good but the highlight was when some of the servers began singing and dancing, pulling people from their chairs to dance along. We were shocked and amazed when Jameson agreed to join them and he did a great job in front of all those people.
On the MelodyJoy front, she has begun playing with her tongue and sputtering. At breakfast this morning, she enjoyed throwing things on the floor and waiting for the bus boys (bus girls, actually) to come pick them up for her.
It’s been nice having Aunt Laura along for the ride on this trip. An extra pair of hands and eyes, a little bit more flexibility for Jameson, a co-negotiator in the markets and trip photographer. I think she’s enjoyed being part of these first days with MJ, too.
Tomorrow is our last full day in China and we’ll get MJ’s visa for entering the States. On Wednesday morning, it’s back on the big bird for the flight home. Since we’ll have a layover of about six hours in Portland, we planning to get together with family and friends who might want to come by PDX to say hello. If you’re in the neighborhood, come to the Rose City Café in the airport between about 9 AM and noon or 1 o’clock and we’ll be in the upstairs conference room. We would love to see you and introduce you to MelodyJoy!
Sorry for such a boring blog entry! I didn’t have much to work with today!
Dinner was at a well-known Thai restaurant called The Banana Leaf in a very upscale mall near the Friendship Store. The food was good but the highlight was when some of the servers began singing and dancing, pulling people from their chairs to dance along. We were shocked and amazed when Jameson agreed to join them and he did a great job in front of all those people.
On the MelodyJoy front, she has begun playing with her tongue and sputtering. At breakfast this morning, she enjoyed throwing things on the floor and waiting for the bus boys (bus girls, actually) to come pick them up for her.
It’s been nice having Aunt Laura along for the ride on this trip. An extra pair of hands and eyes, a little bit more flexibility for Jameson, a co-negotiator in the markets and trip photographer. I think she’s enjoyed being part of these first days with MJ, too.
Tomorrow is our last full day in China and we’ll get MJ’s visa for entering the States. On Wednesday morning, it’s back on the big bird for the flight home. Since we’ll have a layover of about six hours in Portland, we planning to get together with family and friends who might want to come by PDX to say hello. If you’re in the neighborhood, come to the Rose City Café in the airport between about 9 AM and noon or 1 o’clock and we’ll be in the upstairs conference room. We would love to see you and introduce you to MelodyJoy!
Sorry for such a boring blog entry! I didn’t have much to work with today!
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Part of an Intricate Plan
As we left on this trip, Laura gave us the following poem from The Purpose-Driven Life because it reminded her of MelodyJoy:
You are who you are for a reason.
You’re part of an intricate plan.
You’re a precious and perfect unique design,
Called God’s special woman or man.
You look like you look for a reason.
Our God made no mistake.
He knit you together within the womb,
You’re just what He wanted to make.
The parents you had were the ones He chose,
And no matter how you may feel,
They were custom-designed with God’s plan in mind,
And they bear the Master’s seal.
No, that trauma you faced was not easy.
And God wept that it hurt you so;
But it was allowed to shape your heart
So that into His likeness you’d grow.
You are who you are for a reason,
You’ve been formed by the Master’s rod.
You are who you are, beloved,
Because there is a God!
- Russell Kelfer
Pretty in Pink
Also, take a look at www.thestoryofyou.net and click on the "In China" link and then on "Sophie Ann." Toward the bottom of the Lymans' March 31 posting you'll see a photo of MJ with her new friend, Sophie.
A Tale of Two Melodys
This morning began with more firsts as MelodyJoy was laughing and talking up a storm, saying “DaDa” and babbling. It feels like we’re seeing a year’s worth of development in a week as she comes out of her shell and shows us a new trick every time we turn around. She no longer cries when we lay her down to do diaper changes and she seemed excited about bath time. Today she also refined her crawling ability, began to enjoy peek-a-boo and let me toss her in the air. Just a day or two ago, I would have felt she was too fragile to do that but she was laughing and smiling and wanting more. She still can be quite serious but the smiles are coming very frequently now. And she’s certainly not a quiet little girl anymore. As Jeannette just commented, it’s almost like we’ve had two different babies this week: A quiet, somber little one and now this child that babbles and plays loudly.
Our itinerary today included a trip to the Guangzhou Folk Arts Museum, which was built over the course of four years around 1890, financed by the Chen clan as a temple to worship their ancestors. In 1959, it was converted to a museum to preserve the local arts and architecture as modern construction began to overtake the city. There were examples of embroidery, paper cutting, tapestries and painting, porcelain, wood and bone carving, sculpture and household furnishings. Some of it, especially the carvings, was intricately beautiful.
From there, it was to a tea house where they taught us how to choose a top quality teapot (buy clay and make sure that the tea doesn’t dribble down the side of the pot as you stop pouring), how to make tea (don’t let the tea leaves sit in the water more than ten seconds) and had us sample four or five kinds of tea, from oolong to jasmine and ginseng. As expected, they very generously offered us the opportunity to buy their tea and cups and pots and dolls and so on.
To give Jameson a break, we went back across the street to the park this afternoon and visited the amusement park. Jamey even had his first solo driving experience on the bumper cars. We believe that this is how all of the taxi drivers in China learn to drive.
Dinner tonight was at the hotel’s Japanese restaurant. We were seated in a private dining room with the Lymans—sans Sophie and Lindsey, who was enjoying her babysitting assignment—and Stephanie and Andrew Pollara from Maryland, with their new little one Elaina. We got to sit on the floor (thankfully, they had a little pit under the table so you didn’t have to sit cross-legged, and they provided chair backs for us). It was fun to hear about the Pollaras and Lymans about their time in the Wuhan province since they experienced such a different part of China.
The food was okay but the meal service followed what has become a familiar pattern here in China. The dinner plates are about the size of saucers and napkins are small, or nonexistent. Tonight, the role of Napkin was played by Kleenex, from a box in the middle of the table. From there, the different courses appear in random sequence and timing. One person’s steak arrived five minutes before any rice showed up. Soup came toward the end of the meal. One plate of noodles was delivered to the Lymans early on but my noodles showed up just in time for dessert, which was really the only thing that showed up when it was supposed to . . . at the end! I don’t mind all of this Asian food but I’m really looking forward to having the courses show up when they’re supposed to and having a big plate to eat from again!
Tomorrow will be highlighted by the delivery of our paperwork to the US Embassy (all I have to do is sit by the phone in case there are any problems) and then, in a surprising new development, a shopping trip. As Beth’s dad commented tonight, the folks here are very efficient at separating us from our money!
The day we got MelodyJoy, I said I was ready to come home. At the same time, as we near the end of our stay in China, I can tell that I'm going to miss being with this group and living out this experience. The next two days will go by fast, I think!
Our itinerary today included a trip to the Guangzhou Folk Arts Museum, which was built over the course of four years around 1890, financed by the Chen clan as a temple to worship their ancestors. In 1959, it was converted to a museum to preserve the local arts and architecture as modern construction began to overtake the city. There were examples of embroidery, paper cutting, tapestries and painting, porcelain, wood and bone carving, sculpture and household furnishings. Some of it, especially the carvings, was intricately beautiful.
From there, it was to a tea house where they taught us how to choose a top quality teapot (buy clay and make sure that the tea doesn’t dribble down the side of the pot as you stop pouring), how to make tea (don’t let the tea leaves sit in the water more than ten seconds) and had us sample four or five kinds of tea, from oolong to jasmine and ginseng. As expected, they very generously offered us the opportunity to buy their tea and cups and pots and dolls and so on.
To give Jameson a break, we went back across the street to the park this afternoon and visited the amusement park. Jamey even had his first solo driving experience on the bumper cars. We believe that this is how all of the taxi drivers in China learn to drive.
Dinner tonight was at the hotel’s Japanese restaurant. We were seated in a private dining room with the Lymans—sans Sophie and Lindsey, who was enjoying her babysitting assignment—and Stephanie and Andrew Pollara from Maryland, with their new little one Elaina. We got to sit on the floor (thankfully, they had a little pit under the table so you didn’t have to sit cross-legged, and they provided chair backs for us). It was fun to hear about the Pollaras and Lymans about their time in the Wuhan province since they experienced such a different part of China.
The food was okay but the meal service followed what has become a familiar pattern here in China. The dinner plates are about the size of saucers and napkins are small, or nonexistent. Tonight, the role of Napkin was played by Kleenex, from a box in the middle of the table. From there, the different courses appear in random sequence and timing. One person’s steak arrived five minutes before any rice showed up. Soup came toward the end of the meal. One plate of noodles was delivered to the Lymans early on but my noodles showed up just in time for dessert, which was really the only thing that showed up when it was supposed to . . . at the end! I don’t mind all of this Asian food but I’m really looking forward to having the courses show up when they’re supposed to and having a big plate to eat from again!
Tomorrow will be highlighted by the delivery of our paperwork to the US Embassy (all I have to do is sit by the phone in case there are any problems) and then, in a surprising new development, a shopping trip. As Beth’s dad commented tonight, the folks here are very efficient at separating us from our money!
The day we got MelodyJoy, I said I was ready to come home. At the same time, as we near the end of our stay in China, I can tell that I'm going to miss being with this group and living out this experience. The next two days will go by fast, I think!
Saturday, April 01, 2006
BIG NEW DEVELOPMENT, JORDAN AND PHILLIP!
Jordan and Phillip, you will NOT believe this! They just told us today that if we stay two more weeks, they’ll let us bring home ANOTHER little girl! We’re doing all the paperwork right now and to pay for it all I’ve taken the money that we had in your college savings. It’s not quite enough but it’s a start. We’re going to name her Phyllis JordAnna after you two guys.
So anyway, would you go talk to Aaron and Kim right now and ask them if it’s okay for you to stay with them for two more weeks? We’ll be back in Klamath Falls on April 20, okay? I know they’ll say it’s fine but we need to ask anyway, of course. We are SO excited! Talk to you soon!
Oh, one more thing: APRIL FOOLS!!!! Love you guys! We’re really looking forward to seeing you this Wednesday.
So anyway, would you go talk to Aaron and Kim right now and ask them if it’s okay for you to stay with them for two more weeks? We’ll be back in Klamath Falls on April 20, okay? I know they’ll say it’s fine but we need to ask anyway, of course. We are SO excited! Talk to you soon!
Oh, one more thing: APRIL FOOLS!!!! Love you guys! We’re really looking forward to seeing you this Wednesday.
From the Ridiculous to the Sublime
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Today began with an exercise that MelodyJoy clearly saw as ridiculous: A trip to “The Examination Room for Adopted Children.” We were herded through three medical examinations along with a string of . . . who knows? . . . hundreds of Chinese orphans all receiving perfunctory reviews required by the US government. They checked Melody’s hearing (and, frankly, it appeared to me that she failed the test but perhaps they were grading on a curve), listened to her chest and eyeballed her from head to toe, measured her and more. She was thrilled with each aspect of this process, especially being weighed. We found out that she weighs 18.4 pounds and is 27.9 inches tall. The third doctor also told us that the bump on her head is a boil and wrote a prescription for us.
I spent two hours this afternoon jammed into our guides’ hotel apartment with over thirty other parents as Amy led us line by line and form by form through the process of filling out paperwork for the US embassy. (Not to mention turning over the last official payment--$460—of this adoption process!)
It was tedious but I was so grateful for Amy’s guidance as some of the questions appeared simple but were not. For instance, one form asked for the names of MelodyJoy’s siblings. I would have quickly listed Jordan, Phillip and Jameson. Uh, no, the correct answer was “Unknown,” because we can’t know if she has any biological brothers or sisters. In fact, it was a stark reminder to me of Melody’s situation as I saw how many unknowns there were on the children’s forms. Birth city? Unknown. Parent’s names? Unknown. Health history? Unknown.
We all get along well so at times it was hard for Amy to get us through the forms as we were entirely too busy chattering away over this and that, helping one other keep up with her instructions. One very light moment came as we came to a series of questions that asked things like whether the applicant was of average appearance and average intelligence. Naturally, we simultaneously thought the same thing: NO! Our daughter is well above average! Amy insisted we all write “yes” and move on. Another item asked if the applicant plays sports and games with others and Amy again told us to write in “yes.” Pretty funny when you consider that two-thirds of the kids can’t even walk yet.
This evening, after dinner in the hotel’s Chinese restaurant, we went up to an apartment that has been assigned to two of the couples—a huge penthouse place on the 17th floor—and Peter organized a worship service for us all. I’d guess that about fifty or sixty of us, including babies, were there. Our daughter’s first “church” service. After some singing, Pete brought a short “message,” several people shared their thoughts, and one of the pastors in our group led us in communion. I closed in prayer after reading the verses that God gave us as He led us to decide to move back to Oregon from Kentucky six years ago:
“. . . the Lord who created you says, ‘Do not be afraid, for I have ransomed you. I have called you by name; you are mine. When you go through deep waters and great trouble, I will be with you. . . . . For I will give you abundant water to quench your thirst and to moisten your parched fields. And I will pour out my Spirit and my blessings on your children. They will thrive like watered grass, like willows on a riverbank.’” (Isaiah 43:1-2a, 44:3-4)
May God indeed be with our children as they go through difficult times and provide for all their needs!
Returning to our room, we experienced a couple more firsts just before bedtime. Jeannette put MelodyJoy down on the floor and convinced her to crawl for what we assume is the first time. (Another unknown!) Afterwards, Jeannette sputtered and nuzzled MJ’s tummy and elicited our first full-out laughter. We also tried out the “squeaky shoes” that Jeannette bought today—little shoes that squeak with every step—and Melody had fun being walked across the floor for a few minutes.
We also got good news today that my dad is finally home from the hospital after his overnight visit turned into overnight-after-overnight for the last week. Our travel group had prayed for him several days ago as we drove through Guangzhou’s traffic on our way to a meal. Glad you’re home and able to read this blog now, Grandpa!!
Tomorrow we will visit a folklore museum (if I understood what Lineaker was telling us) and go to a tea ceremony (where Jeannette is sure they will figure out a way to sell us something), then have the rest of the day to ourselves. Thanks for following our journey. For another viewpoint, visit www.thedriskills.blogspot.com.
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