Travel Journal - Day 11

Looking at us with groggy eyes in the morning Smiling when she sees her mommy and daddy Reaching out for her mommy and daddy…….PRICELESS!!

She is out!! She is out!! Can we just say that the Lord first blessed us with TWO beautiful, loving boys, and then blessed us again with a little sweetheart??!! I think so!! She is such an amazing girl, and there is not a minute that goes by that we aren’t marveling at what a beautiful girl she is. She is now pulling herself up to standing positions in the playpen, scooting all over, and VOCALIZING all her happy feelings. She now can clap her hands, and give open mouthed kisses, as well as wave bye-bye when she feels like it! Her giggles are contagious, and she is just a light for everyone that is in her presence! Thank the Lord!! Today was spent with a morning at a Chinese Folk Art museum and tasting tea at a tea house. Did you know that a tea bag is only suppose to sit in a cup of hot water for no more than 30 seconds? Did you also know that if you drink tea on an empty stomach you can get "tea drunk?" (I’m not sure I agree with that one, but our guide says he has!!). Those are just a few "facts" that we learned while sipping tea. After our morning outing a bunch of women from our group went off to Shamain Island to do some power shopping. It is an area designated for foreign travelers where they have great buys on girls clothing and shoes, as well as many different types of Chinese trinkets. This area caters primarily to the American adoption families. They have well known shoes to the adoption community that are called "squeaky shoes" and when the child walks they give off a squeaky noise. The noise can be turned off and on for parents sanity. These shoes are made with very soft leather and the soles are flexible with lots of traction. They are only 4 dollars a pair!!! I would say easily they could be 25.00 in the U.S. We spent about 3 hours shopping and then needed to head back to the hotel for a Japanese dinner with the rest of our group. It was great fun to have them prepare the meal in front of us, and I do need to say that Miss Taya behaved herself quite well for only having a 45 minute nap the whole day!! She is like an energizer bunny who keeps going and going and going! But when she did zonk tonight it was quite the ZONK! Hopefully she will sleep for a good 10 hours which is what she is averaging. Tomorrow there is no real plans. Our guides Linekar and Amy have been taking excellent care of all of us. Yesterday was a 2 hour paperwork session with a parent getting all of the documents ready for the US Consulate, and tomorrow they are taking all of the 30 Plus families documents to the consulate for processing. They are doing all of the leg work for us, and we just have to hang out in our hotel rooms for an hour and a half just in case there are questions they have for us when they are there. We have a bus trip planned for the whole group to Shamain Island for the afternoon. We are glad to go back because we only got as far as one whole block while we were there today!! I have found a group of ladies that love to shop just like mom and I, and one of them is Lucy’s mom Teresa. She is such a sweet woman, and we look forward to a lifelong friendships with her and her husband Chris. Well, that’s it for today. Dana and I would just like to say once again thank you for all of the well wishes and notes by email while we are here. They are so fun to read, and we apologize for not getting back to all of you. We just want you to know that we appreciate them!! Also, a BIG THANK YOU to the Sampsons, Grandma and Grandpa Oberloh, the Hagens, the Vande Kamps, and the Stofferan’s for all of their help watching over the boys. You don’t know how much we appreciate it!!

Till Tomorrow…….. Amy and Dana

Dustin and Jonah: Finally we were able to connect on the phone. It was GREAT to hear your voices!! We have been looking all over for the Xbox that you are talking about and can’t find it. We don’t have access to too many places, and the Walmart here as well as the department store they brought us to had none. Please know that we are trying, but it doesn’t look too promising. The only thing that I have found that is close to something like that is 2.00 DVD’s at Shamain Island that are in English. They had Playstation 2 games, but no Gamecube or Xbox. We will keep looking and of course find some unique things for you!! We miss you tons, and will be home in 3 days!! WOW!!

Mom