On finding balance in China

Some of our first days in China, the days in Nanjing, we're hard because we didn't have enough to do. If you know me, you know that I don't know how to sit and relax under normal circumstances. And in those early days, there was a lot of sitting around, primarily because it was just too darn hard to get around, but also because Rose was sick and she needed to adjust to us.

Since we've arrived in Guangzhou, we've been busy all day long. When we're not doing adoption related visits, we're sightseeing. Today we did a whole lot of both. We started the day with an appointment at the US Consulate at 8:30, which meant getting up at 5:30 to have time to feed the baby, dress her, shower, do some Face Time with the kids at home, hit the breakfast buffet, and actually get over to the consulate building.

Then we went through metal detectors, stood in line, and waited (notice a pattern developing here?). We got back with just enough time to change Rose out of her pretty Chinese dress (the purple one in yesterday's picture) and join the group for a trip to the safari park.
The safari park is basically a zoo, plus a circus, plus Disney's Animal Kingdom (including the inescapable gift shops at the end of the best exhibits), minus the abomible snowman ride.

Here are some highlights. The animals were awesome and the train we took got us really up close and personal.
































While we were riding the safari train, Rose sat next to Meiya, who is twenty months and also in our travel group. They both have unrepaired clefts and spent a good amount of time trying to probe each others' mouths. They also held hands several times, but we never managed to get a good picture. It was super cute, trust me.




All things considered, Rose and the other kids were remarkably tolerant of their day. It was hot and I felt more than a little grouchy by the end of the day, but Rose was a trouper.

I'd love to report that we had a fantastic Cantonese dinner and Annie now considers herself fully converted to Chinese food, but that didn't happen. In fact, all I ate all day was a banana and a little donut from the buffet (we ran a little late this morning) and some kettle corn and part of an ice cream cone for lunch. So I really wanted a good dinner, and we had a delicious meal at an Italian place down the street (three other families in our group ate there too). It was nice to eat familiar food with good company in a place that didn't smell like fish.

Now Rose is sleeping (in her crib, even! A miracle after she was up every 20 minutes last night) and I'm about to join her. These long days may be exhausting, but they certainly give me lots to talk about.

We're headed back to shop at Shamian Island in the morning. Pretty excited about it. Any requests from the folks back home?

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