A Wonderful Day in China

Today we had a shopping excursion to the local mall. It was quite large. Eden did really good today and was cracking herself up all morning. She likes to move all the time. Either she was in the stroller movin' along or she wanted out to walk. Mommy or daddy holding her only held passing interest now, like if it got her closer to something she wanted to investigate. We bought some gifts for friends and had lunch at Pizza Hut. It's just like Pizza Hut in the USA, right down to the Supreme Pan Pizza we had. Of course, if you want pizza with corn and salmon they have that too.

After lunch we tried out Benedryl on Eden for her nap. We have a 15 hour plane ride in 2 days, and wanted to see if a small dose would help her sleep. It did and she had a great nap and two relieved parents. It seems we might indeed have some help if she has trouble sleeping on the plane.

The pics today are indicative of typical Eden happiness. She's just turning into a genuinely fun little girl and we just love her more and more and more every day. A week ago we could not yet imagine life with her, and of course today we cannot imagine life without her. What a blessing!

The highlight of the day, however, was meeting with some friends from the USA who are here in Guangzhou. It was good to see some familiar faces and talk a little about the adoption, the culture and what it's really like to live in China. Of course, we've only seen a small portion of the country, and frankly the nicer portion at that. It's really just about impossible to explain what it's like here in a blog--most things you expect to see are familiar but the way people live and interact is so different than we know. Our friends were able to put some words to what we've been sensing since we arrived. They also gave us the best meal we've eaten since we've arrived in China!

Folks, I'm here to tell you that China doesn't have some of the comforts we know and there are of course many issues here that a country of 1.3 billion has to deal with, but they are ahead of us in a variety of ways. The entire city seems to be "under construction" with cranes dotting the skyline in all directions. In fact we've seen that in every city in China. The entire country seems to be in the process of being rebuilt before our eyes. It's wonderful to know that as we grow to understand China over time our family is now connected to China in a way that will last our entire lives and that we will be a part of the future of this country.

Oh, and one more small miracle. Bath time tonight was great. A few tears to start out, but then the fun began as she started playing with her bath toys. And of course she was completely adorable. Thank you, Lord, for the big and small things.