plush accomodations

here in Foshan.   We moved out to a suburb of Guangzhou this afternoon.  We are joking that it is like we are staying in Eden Prairie.  Our hotel is beautiful; we are in a corner room that is a living area, guest bathroom, a bedroom, huge bathroom, and a dressing area.  The boys are in an adjoining room, and they are quite excited and pleased with their living "conditions".  To say we have been upgraded in an understatement.  However, with the trade fair on the price is actually the same as if we were currently staying at the Victory.  Their rates this week skyrocketed.  We are quite pleased to be enshrined in Foshan.

There is a small little manmade lake across the street with walkways, pavilions and playareas.  Tomorrow we will explore there.  There is also a huge and quite fancy mall across the other side of the street.  It does have a KFC (gross!) that we ate lunch at.  The boys (that includes Jim) were pleased with their greasy chicken.  I nibbled.  Afterward we strolled the mall.  It is filled with high end stores, and is huge.  Very different from our Beijing shopping extravaganza where I felt like we were in a TJ Maxx gone maxxed flea market style.  There is a very nice market on the main floor, and it felt a bit like shopping at Lund's or Byerly's versus Cub Foods, if that gives you an idea of the difference in where we've been shopping to where we just shopped.  I was surprised to see many families with multiple children.  There were numerous parents with two children.  I'm not sure what to make of this, but it is certainly a different slice of China than we have seen thus far.  

Emma is now taking a bit of a nap.  We are trying to emphasize the "bit" so she isn't up until 10pm.  The boys all went down to play in the pool.  It is gorgeous.  I'm enjoying the quiet moment.  It is a luxury to be able to go to another room and type and have a coffee and not wake her up!  

She has thus far tolerated her shots well. No fever at naptime (at 4pm...late, I know).  We did learn at the appt that our little girl is really quite proficient at cheating on the eye exam!  She had the whole room smiling indulgently as she kept shifting the little eye cover over to one side.  Needless to say, we will be visiting the optometrist for some adorable glasses once we are home.  One of her eyes has terrible vision!  Jim announced that she gets that from his side of the family, causing our guide to look askance until he realized Jim was joking (sort of).  She is "our side" of the family.  She will be the cutest little thing with her beautiful brown eyes peeking out from spectacles.  Good thing we know she likes glasses...it took us days to get those sunglasses off of her!  Maybe we should encourage their return!  JennJenn, KTG: they have polka dots!

She is such a trooper, and is blossoming more and more each day.  She has such a sparkle in her eyes, and we are astounded at both her resilience and the joi de vivre with which she greets each day.  She is affectionate, and also knows well when she isn't interested in giving affection.  Those are such healthy boundaries to have.  She is not indiscriminately affectionate or familiar with strangers, and for that I am so grateful.  It speaks volumes about our journey to becoming a family together.  I think she has had consistent caregivers and is able to recognize the idea of a family unit.  She loves it when we say, "Mama, Baba, Emma, Cooper, Jeb" and make the sign language sign for family.  

Arriving in Guangzhou has given us all a fresh breath of life.  Our time in her province was important, and good.  It was also hard and we are glad it is now behind us.  And behind her.  I feel like there is so much to still process, and hope we take the time to do that.  For her sake as well as ours.

Please join us in praying for the three (we saw two) boys at Emma's orphanage who are on the shared list.  We may have some incredible news to share soon.  

One big day done.  Seven sleeps to home.  

We can't wait to see you all!

We arrive on Friday, October 29th at 4:30m.  Delta flight.  You are welcome to come meet our family of seven!  We would really love to see people, before we whisk Emma off to nest at home for a bit.  Jim keeps looking at me and saying, "Honey, we have five children".  I just laugh.  In a really good way.  Five.  I can do this...

Love from Foshan/Guangzhou!

xoxo