R & R Day

Today the only thing we have planned is dinner with our group. Our original group consisted of 11 families. Six of those families have been in another province getting their girls, and this afternoon they arrived in Guangzhou for the last step. It will be great to meet the other families that we've only met via the internet.

Today was shopping day. We've done some shopping in the past, but didn't really have a chance to check out all the shops. The one thing we've learned about shopping here is that you're never alone. The clerks in the stores are very aggressive. Once you've come close to entering the store, they are by your side the entire time. It drives me nuts, and all I can think of is "get me out of here!!". Luckily today, we found a store named Jordan's that let us look around, so I did all sorts of buying. It was great! When we entered the store, the owner asked us what Sydney's name was because he was going to write the Chinese characters for her english name for free. I thought it was really sweet and will be a great momento for her. After he asked us her name, he never talked to us about buying a thing.

We're getting close to the end of our stay here, and looking forward to getting home on Thursday. Sydney is doing great. For all practical purposes, her grieving is over. Every once in a while she grieves, but it's only for a minute or two and then it's over and she's laughing. I'm glad that her sadness hasn't lasted long. She's in a great mood most of the time, but doesn't like sitting in one place for too long (just like her Dad!). The flight home should prove interesting, but we got the bulkhead seats so hopefully there will be enough room for her to stretch out and play a bit.

We took pictures from our room so you could see what Guangzhou looks like. It's an urban city of about 9 million people. The "fog" you see in the picture is pollution. It's like that all the time. We're in a part of Guangzhou called Shamian Island. It's very western here, where the rest of the city is not.