Adoption? : Jan 24 - Sightseeing Shamian Island

Sunday, January 24, 2016

Well, Ben and I got about 11 hours of sleep last night and Lucee over 12. What are we gonna do when reality hits and we can't sleep this long??!! We got to Skype with the kids this morning before heading down for breakfast. The boys got to go ice fishing with papa and Lilee had a date with Nana. They are so cute and we miss them sooooooooooooooooooooo (there aren't enough O's to show how much we miss them) much! It seems like the end is in sight, only 5 more days till we see them!!!

This morning, Lucee seems to be more attached to Ben than me. It's kind of hard, to love someone so much but they don't want to interact with you. I know this will pass and in bit she'll want me again, but for now, it's difficult. Anytime I try helping her or ask her something she says 'no' to me.

We go down to breakfast and I was able to talk with a family from Kentucky who is here for their second adoption of a girl who turns 2 years old in 7 days. Their first girl they adopted when she was 9 months old and she is now 6 years old. It was nice to see there is hope for the future, she will eventually feel a part of our family and feel safe with us.

After breakfast, we met our guide to go to Shamian Island to do some shopping for souvenirs. He took us to an area that had been built by the British when they invaded over a hundred years ago. It is called an island because it is a bunch of buildings together with a waterway built around it like an island. The buildings are beautiful and there are statues throughout that are famous. We went into 2 shops where we found most of our souvenirs for our kids back home. We wished the weather was better, because we would've loved to walk around and explore it more. However, it began sleeting so we decided to head back to the hotel. On the drive home it began snowing a few big snowflakes. Our driver who is almost 60 years old and has lived in Guangzhou his whole life has never seen it snow here. We saw people come out of buildings and take pictures of the “snow”. I say “snow” because it didn't even stick, but just a few sparse flakes here and there. But to them, they may have never seen it at all. So it was a big deal.

We got back to the hotel and Ben went to get our lunch to bring back to the hotel for us all to eat. He got chicken and rice and a Big Mac from McDonald's. This was the first time Lucee ate most of her meal, which was encouraging cause she hasn't eaten much the past couple days besides yogurt and bananas. After lunch, it was Ben's turn to attempt to put her down for a nap. Shockingly there was no struggle at all. She just laid down next to him and she fell asleep without any crying or screaming. She slept for about an hour and a half and then woke up in a great mood where everything is fun and she laughs at everything.

We heard there was a great Thai restaurant nearby so after playing in the hotel room, we decided to brave the windy, cold night and walk around to find the Thai restaurant. After walking around for about a half an hour, with no Thai place in site, we decided to go with the good ole' trusty Beef and Noodle place we've come to rely on. We got beef noodles for Ben and I, and tried a different dish of noodles and chicken broth with veggies for Lucee. We got back to the hotel and she ate about half of her dish (again, a huge improvement and we were thankful that she is eating more.) and we enjoyed our beef and noodles. Tomorrow we will ask our guide where this famous Thai restaurant is... Tonight, Lucee enjoyed another long bubble bath while I washed as many clothes as I could in the bathroom sink.

Tonight we were planning on spending some time together after she fell asleep, so we acted like we were going to sleep with her, but since she ended up taking over an hour to fall asleep, we all fell asleep at basically the same time tonight.