Here are video clips of our drive through Guangzhou from Shamian Island to the Chen Ancestral Home, which is now an art museum of sorts.  The narrator is Joyce, one of our guides.

Now that we're back (phew), I finally have time to post some videos.  More to come.

Red Couch Picture Day.

Today was the day when all of the newly adopted children get dressed up in traditional Chinese garb to have their photo taken on the red couch in the lobby of the White Swan Hotel. Emily liked getting dressed up, but she wasn't too keen about the group photo. (A girl after my own heart!). She was the life of the party at the afternoon tea we attended following the photo, though. She continues to be very happy and extremely active in comparison to her compatriates who are all about the same age as she.

Tomorrow we go to the US Consulate for an oath-taking ceremony. Then on to Hong Kong via train. We spend one night in Hong Kong and then we fly back to the States on Thursday. We are definitely ready to come home and we are very much looking forward to seeing Colin and Alex!

Chinese Food

These pictures are especially for Colin and Alex. The well-traveled say there is nothing the Cantonese won't eat. After staying here for more than a week now, I think I must agree. When we last spoke to Alex he was very interested in all of the unusual food that we saw being served at various restaurants on Shamian Island. Above are photos of live sea food that is sold in a fancy Cantonese restaurant across the street from our hotel. In addition to more run of the mill items, you will find water beetles, sand worms, geoducks and silk worms for your dining pleasure.

We think Debbie's prayers must have worked because we FINALLY had a sunny day! Temperature got up to the low seventies. It was breezy with no humidity. We spent some nice time outside today.

Also today Emily had her mandatory US medical exam. She didn't love the exam, but she checked out just fine. She is a bit smaller than the other babies her age who came from the same orphanage. At 18 months she weighs just about 20 pounds and is about 26 inches long. Those of you who knew us when Alex was born will remember that he was over 25 inches long when he was born! It is going to take some getting used to for us to have a petite child in the McKay household.

Emily continues to make terrific progress. What a difference a week makes. We took her to the famous playroom in the White Swan Hotel that is sponsored by Mattel today. She was happy and curious, but she was definitely clear that Steve and I are her parents. She would walk away for a few seconds and then come racing back to check in with us. She remains wary of strangers and lights up when we pick her up. She tries to feed both of us whatever she is eating, she loves to pat my face when I am feeding or olding her and Steve is definitely her favorite playmate. To us these seem like good signs that she is starting to bond with us. I know we will have a long journey ahead on that front but right now it feels like we are headed in the right direction.

Tomorrow is a free day for us, but we will gather with all of the other families in our adoption group to take the famous red couch picture in the afternoon. This is a group photo taken on a particular red couch in the hotel with all of the children dressed in traditional Chinese garb. Should be interesting!

A Buddhist Blessing

Yet another cold, rainy day here. We went on a brief trip to a famous Buddhist temple called the Temple of the Six Banyan Trees today so that the recently adopted babies in our group could receive a Buddhist blessing. This temple was much larger than the one we stumbled across yesterday and there were many tourists visiting the Temple. There was a large courtyard and Chinese garden surrounded by several buildings, various worship spaces, again lots of incense, peanuts and water left in offering to the Buddhas. There were also several dozen monks wearing traditional garb walking around the various buildings.

After a brief time exploring, we entered a worship space for a special blessing that is routinely given to newly adopted children here. All the adults were asked to take off their shoes and kneel with our hands in a prayer position facing the goddess of mercy. We were each holding our newly adopted children. Then, a monk joined us and chanted for a couple of minutes. Finally, he sprinkled water on everyone's head with what looked like a palm frond and we were done. I'm disappointed that I couldn't simultaneously take video and participate in the blessing. I did manage a couple of still photos, though.

Emily is still happiest when we let her run around and play in our hotel room, so we are doing lots of that today. A little dull for Mom and Dad, but it is so rewarding to watch her running all around with such a big smile on her face!

Tomorrow we are taking her to get her mandatory medical exam at the US Consulate. We miss Colin and Alex very much and we can't wait to introduce them to their new little sister in just a few more days.

Rainy Saturday

Yes, it is STILL raining! Steve has decided he suffers from seasonal affective disorder because he really hates that we never see the sun. I suppose that is what growing up in Florida will do to you! We New Englanders are used to long periods without sun, so in some ways I feel right at home!

Today we traveled to the local Starbucks (a short walk from our hotel) for breakfast. We dashed in side just before a huge thunderstorm. The Starbucks is popular with the Americans and Europeans who are staying here. Steve thinks he could make a fortune if he opened up a Dunkin Donuts franchise near by.

We went on a brief outing to the whole sale jade and pearl market this afternoon. There are probably 500-1,000 little jewelry shops jammed into a small area in the center of Guangzhou. Each shop sells exactly the same items. Hard to believe they can all stay in business! We decided the jewelry market was a little too crowded, so we took a stroll outside. While walking outdoors, we noticed the scent of incense. We followed our noses and stumbled across the neatest Buddhist Temple. According to the signs a temple has been located on this site for 1,500 years. It burns down periodically and has to be rebuilt. I wonder if the fires have anything to do with all of the incense sticks that visitors light and leave there? The most recent re-building occurred in the 1990s. The temple was built in honor of an Indian monk who brought zen Buddhism to China some time around 500 AD. There were dozens of Chinese worshippers there when we arrived. They make offerings to the Buddha of peanuts, water and incense. One person told us that the smoke from the incense takes your wishes up to the Buddha and this is why so many visitors like to burn incense at the temple. Inside the temple there were 500 large golden statues, each in a different pose. We had great fun exploring the temple while the rest of our group was shopping.

As for Emily, she is doing great. She loves to toddle all over our room exploring everything she can reach. She seems very much like a typical toddler. She has very strong likes and dislikes, and she is not at all afraid to let you know what they are! She laughs hysterically at things she enjoys and complains loudly when she is unhappy. We learned from a Guangzhou native that little girls with strong personalities like hers are called "spicy girls" in China. It is funny that the orphanage described her as shy, she doesn't seem that way at all to us! She is a terrific sleeper, but is a bit of a fussy eater. She has discovered Cheerios and can't seem to get enough of those. She also enjoys some Cantonese dishes (steamed eggs, rice noodles with beef). The food she seems to like the best looks like what we would consider Vietnamese. I suppose that is because she lived so much closer to the border with Vietnam, the cuisines have probably blended a bit. Fortunately, we have many delicious Vietnamese restaurants at home so we should be able to replicate some of her favorites. She is very content to play in our room for hours with her various toys. She will race around playing with one item after another. One of her favorite games is to throw the ball to me, come and grab it from me, then throw it to Steve. She happily plays this game for hours. While she walks a ton in our room, she absolutely refuses to take one step if we leave the room. She does that famous baby back-bend arch and starts to throw a temper tantrum if we try to put her down. I am guessing this may have something to do with feeling safe and comfortable in our room and much less certain when we leave the room.

Tomorrow we are off to take the babies to a famous local Buddhist temple to receive a special blessing from the monks there.

The Chen ancestral home

The Chen are one of the largest families in southern China (know anyone named Chen? yup). In 1894 they build a large home, which has become a museum of folk arts - mostly carvings. It's very elaborate, impressive stuff. We visited on Friday, because it was a good thing to do on a rainy day.

This was also the day Emily decided to reveal to us that should could run around the room, throw the ball, and bring us things. Delightful, and tiring.