We had a bit of a rough start this morning. We have realized that Anna is a very slow starter after waking up, morning or nap time. We skyped with the family back home, and she just looked very groggy. We went down for breakfast, and the girl can eat. She had scrambled eggs, a bowl of rice soup (congee), some noodles, raisins, pieces of roll, and pieces of baked pumpkin.
We came back to the room, and Matt stepped out to use the restroom, and she was very upset. The funny thing is that when she started crying, food started spilling out. Maybe she was saving it for later! So, I was trying to comfort her and wipe up noodles and raisins slipping out of her mouth. It was obvious when Daddy came out that he was top spot, and she stopped crying immediately. I'm trying to keep it all in perspective, but after waiting so long and doing so much work to get here and not having much sleep, it's hard not to take it personally. So, I had to take a few deep breaths and act like the adult that I am (or at least should be!), and go with the Anna flow.
We headed out to the August 1st park, and we did some people watching. There were older folks working out, playing Chinese chess, dancing, singing, and doing Tai Chi. It was fascinating to watch these groups, and the boys were pulling our arms to go to the amusement park rides while we wanted to stop and watch.
We then headed over to the Youmin Temple, a local buddhist temple. We were able to walk around and take pictures. It felt very weird to be in a buddhist temple. There were people kneeling to the buddha statues. They were purchasing incense which they would light and stick into pots in front of the statues. There were three main rooms where they had statues and they had several side rooms with statues in them. The one in the picture was probably 30-40 feet tall. It was hard to capture the size on camera. The boys asked lots of good questions, so it was a time of good discussion for us. We asked our guide if he was buddhist and he said, no religion, and he asked about Christianity, so Matt was able to share with him why we believe what we believe. He does not have perfect English, so I'm not sure how much he was able to understand.
After the temple, we went to the People's Park. More amusement park rides. The boys and I got on a ride we thought was a roller coaster, it had a track about 20 feet in the air. We quickly found out that it was a self propelled coaster. Joshua and I had to pedal our way around the entire track. We were so busy laughing that it was hard to pedal. It was a joy to see Anna wave to us as we went around though. Then we fed the fish and let the boys run around on a low ropes course. I think that was their favorite thing all day. Next, we headed to the porcelain shop. Jiangxi province is world famous for its porcelain (that's why it's called china). So, we decided to buy Anna a tea set to save for her when she is grown. Our guide says that usually a bride's family buys her porcelain for her wedding.
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| Anna waves. |
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| Joshua on the zip line. |
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| Our guide making sure Anna was covered to avoid being scolded by the Chinese ladies. |
Our guide dropped us off at McDonald's for lunch and then we did some shopping at the RT Mart (Taiwan's version of Walmart). It was actually much nicer than Walmart from the other day. The boys still had a difficult time with the smell in the meat market, but they were able to tolerate it long enough for us to get some pictures. After that, we walked a long way back to the hotel.
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| Dried foods, I recognized fish, but that was it. |
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| Turtles or frogs for dinner? |
Tonight we ordered Papa John's and hung out in the play room with the other adoptive families. I was able to rock Anna to sleep again tonight. So, I will take the little things for now.
Tomorrow, bright and early we head to Ji'an to visit Anna's SWI.
1 comment:
Aww, she's already a Daddy's Girl! So cute, but I definitely get how hard that must be for you, Debbie. My girls think their Daddy hung the moon and can do no wrong, and I'm just annoying nagging Mama whose always telling them what to do. Ha ha.
She is just so cute, I can't wait to see her smile! We sent a few things your way this week, so expect something when you get back home. Happy sightseeing, and I wanted to konw, is it weird to visit the SWI after you already spent a week with her?
:) Laura
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