She Is Indeed a Toddler!

Another interesting day in Wuhan as we await our paperwork from the Notary Office (that's why we're staying the week here--it takes a few days to process all the adoption papers). Again today Eden was a little sad, but she seemed to find her figity-ness. She is indeed a toddler and contorted herself into all kinds of pretzel shapes in our arms as we carried her about today.

This morning our guide had a tour lined up of the city starting at 9:00 a.m. First of all, Wuhan in the summer is hot. I mean really, really hot, even by Birmingham standards. It's an oven inside a sauna sitting in the desert, wrapped in red peppers and covered with Tabasco. It wasn't quite misery walking around with the baby and the other families, but it was close. I think I lost five pounds due to sweat, which is good cause I need to drop a good 20 anyhow.

First we saw the Provincial Museum, where the contents of a 2,400 year old Chinese Nobleman's tomb were on display. Think of Egyptian tombs where everything is buried with the Pharoah--same thing. This guy had a 5-ton set of musical bells buried with him. They were cast in bronze and the whole assembly stood about 10 feet high. Knowing Jim Watkins' weariness at church handbells, I actually thought these might be cool enough to play in church on Sunday, so I took a few pictures.

There was a handbell concert that we went to and it was pretty cool. The music was cool, that is--the room itself was a blast furnace. Oh, did I mention it was crowded? They ended the show with Beethoven's Ode to Joy, which was fun to hear on an instrument created 400 years before Christ walked the earth.

Then it was on to "Yellow Crane Tower." I can't tell you the story of why it was built, because by this point in the day, I was "Minged-out" (our inside phrase for too much Chinese history at once). Apparently, though, every major monument requires an insanely large number of stairs to climb before you reach it. From the top of the tower we could see the whole city (that is, what we could make out in the haze of smog). There were some nice gardens nearby and Eden let me hold her for a while. I even got a few kisses in on her cheeks while she had her guard down.

We've really enjoyed seeing all the people, culture and getting a sense of the life here in China, but since Monday we've been more and more captured in our attention with little Eden. So we're really looking forward at this point to moving on tomorrow to Guangzhou. Tomorrow we'll get Eden's adoption certificate and a receipt (yes, when you adopt a child in China, they give you a receipt--"Paper or plastic? Would you like fries with your daughter?")

Speaking of Eden, here are some funny things about her. First, she likes to hold several things in both hands at one time. She picks up her bottle, her ball, her doll, and then wanders around frustrated as to why she can't hold a fourth item. She has found out exactly where we hide the cookies (she says, "beh beh" for cookie) and can not only point to where they are in the closet, but will walk over and show us what she wants just in case we don't understand. When something falls on the floor while she's eating, she has to stop and point to it until someone picks it up or "deals with it" in some manner. She LOVES watermelon--it captures her total focus as soon as someone places it on the table. She has learned to say "Maggie" (our dog), "Nana" (grandmom) and "Kay Kay" (Aunt Kelly) from their pictures in her little picture book. I've gotten just a few "Popa's" out of her, but she's just now starting to open up a little.

We've been blessed to meet some other great families and hang out with them here in Wuhan. We'll be meeting up with a few more families in Guangzhou. Tomorrow's plane ride should be interesting. Tonight we still have dinner (noodles we think) and bath time (earplugs, anyone?). She hasn't done any real grieving today but we're expecting some tears later as well--all the day's activities take her mind off of her foster mom during the day. When it's quiet at night she begins to process a little more and the tears usually come.

Thanks again for all your notes and emails. We miss everyone over there halfway around the world. Looking forward to arriving home next Wednesday.