Day 10 - It it Sunday??

Today was a really nice day. We had breakfast and then headed out on foot with a couple of other families to see the area. We made a pit stop at the Starbucks where we all enjoyed ourselves. Even the girls seemed to enjoy their first Starbucks experience! They had fun playing together, eating Cheerios and being in the AC. We then shopped a little and stopped for lunch. The area is really beautiful and feels very safe. We love just being able to walk around outside. It's such a difference from the cities we've been to so far. After lunch Chris and I stayed out to do a little more walking around and we got stuck in a rain shower. He had Lia in one store and I was stuck in another, next door. It only lasted about 15 minutes but gave each of us enough time to meet and chat with some local Chinese people. They were so nice and also very supportive of our coming here to adopt. Since this is where the US Consulate office is located, all American families have to stay in Guangzhou before going back to the US so the people here are used to seeing adoptive families. We also learned a lot about each of them – Chris in one store and me in another. So getting separated and stuck in the rain was a nice treat for us both.   I was excited today to buy Lia her first Chinese silk dress. I let Chris pick the color and she'll wear it later this week when all of the girls from our travel group get together for the famous "Red Couch" picture at the White Swan Hotel. This is a tradition that all adoption travel groups do before the end of the week here. These girls will always have a special bond and this photo is one of the only ones that will include them altogether here in China.   Tonight we had a group dinner at a local Chinese restaurant. It was considered a "nice" and typical Cantonese meal. Chris and I gave it a thumbs down and decided that if we'd been eating this for 10 days we would have both starved by now. It didn't compare to the food in Hunan, which we loved. Some things on the table tonight were fish, pork, bamboo shutes and pigeons – with the heads on. We were told that the brains were good and at least one person in our group ate them. Not me. Not ever. Chris didn't either thank goodness. The fish we ate had bones it, the rolls were mushy and had pork inside and even the veggies had a funky taste. So, I had a couple of bites just to try a few things and then came back to the hotel and had peanut MnM's. Dinner of champions but sometimes you've gotta do what you must! Tomorrow we are having the girls' medical exams at 9:30am. Our hope and prayer is that Lia aall of the rest of the girls are considered "healthy". Many of them still have runny noses and some congestion but overall they are all doing great! No obvious developmental delays and nothing else that "seems" wrong. We are hoping the exams are quick, painless and that everyone gets a thumbs up! Afterwards we are heading off the island to some of the markets. That should be interesting and we are looking forward to that.   Lia is still doing great and her comfort level is growing more and more. She definitely knows we are "hers", whether she understands the mommy and daddy concept or not. She just follows Chris with her eyes when he leaves the room or walks by and she actually crawled over to me today when I wasn't even trying to get her to. All of this is really good. So far she is still sleeping well and we are hoping that continues. She laughs more and more every day and the smiles come more easily. We are so encouraged by all of this and are so thankful.   We have only 4 full days to go before we get on a plane to head home. We are glad the trip is moving faster now and are enjoying ourselves but we are counting down!  Until tomorrow ….