Wednesday, June 1
For the first time we did not have anything scheduled for today. We have either had a flight scheduled, a tour
scheduled, or an appointment every day
we have been here and today we had absolutely nothing scheduled
-- zip,
nada, nothing. It was great. We took the opportunity
to get to know
Isabelle
better.
We washed some clothes this morning -- carry-on only has
been great
-- and
then booked it for breakfast at the hotel. Tori and
Stefanie decided
that they
had had enough of breakfast foods and went with some traditional
dinner
foods, at least traditional at our house. Tori had
spaghetti and
Stefanie had
some Chinese steamed dumplings and her own blend of soy sauce
and
chives
to dip them in. Then it was back to the room for Isabelle
to have a
bottle of
formula and then she took a 1.5 hour nap. I took it upon
myself to
keep an
eye on her so I maintained my vigilant watch by sleeping for
1.25 hours
and
just to make sure she knew I was there I snored part of the time
--
helps her
know if she ever needs anything she can count on me. I'm
sure she
didn't
notice either the sleeping or the snoring; at least she hasn't
mentioned it to
me.
An update on how quickly she has advanced.
Isabelle sits up now.
She
doesn't raise herself to a sitting position on her own but we
put her
in the
position and she can sit there for a while. Yesterday she
would fall
over to
the side if we tried sitting her up. Stefanie said that
her front to
back stability
is great probably due to time she spent in the walker at the
orphanage.
Just
needs to work on her side-to-side stability. She also is
developing a
'princess' personality. She can raise a ruckus at a
restaurant. She
is not a big
fan of sitting down while we eat. She wants to be on the
move or
stimulated
more. She also just did the sign language sign for Mama.
We went out, on our own, to do some shopping and got
Isabelle some
cute little pink shoes. Today we will also buy the washer
and air
conditioner
for the orphanage. A day of shopping and hanging out,
perfect day at
this
point in the trip.
This afternoon we were treated to two 'traditional'
Chinese pastimes:
Kentucky Fried Chicken and the Walmart Supercenter. We
went to Walmart
to
purchase our donations to the orphanage. We were able to
buy three
washing machines and one air conditioner. In addition,
Skyline
Community
Church donations allowed us to buy 26 children's outfits.
All will be
delivered
to Civil Affairs where the Huai'An SWI will pick it up and then
use it.
It was
really incredible knowing that other children will be a little
bit
better off
because of these donations. The reason we had KFC "take
away" was that
Isabelle missed her nap while we were at Walmart and we knew if
we
tried
another Chinese restaurant that she would fall apart and it
wouldn't be
enjoyable for anyone, so we stayed in.
Anyway, another day in China has passed and we are
enjoying every
minute of it. Tomorrow we go the Nanjing History Museum
and do some
embroidery shopping. Tonight we will watch a movie once
Isabelle has
gone
to sleep and then we'll call it a night ourselves.
|
Isabelle caught in the act of giving kisses.
She giggles and loves to be tickled.
Isabelle standing in full splendor.
We gotta fatten her up. She is sooo tiny. |
