Wednesday in Nanchang...

Today was a simple day of being a parent... It was good for us since last night was a little tough. Mia has a bit of cold and is congested, she also likes to sleep with her thumb in her mouth, unfortunately combination of the congestion, the thumb and breathing don't work together. She would put her thumb in her mouth while sleeping, then not be able to breath, and thus wake herself up. This was a repetitive process through the night. Add the generally not feeling well because of the cold, and teething it did not make for a great night of sleep. The good thing is Maddie, once asleep can sleep through pretty much anything so although Mom and Dad were up most of the night, Maddie slept and Mia was able to catch up today while being carried around, and mom and Dad, this is just part of the joy of parenthood which I am sure most of you are quite familiar with. Speaking of "parent hood' I forgot to mention we had the poop on day 2 and it was pretty much as we expected so it passed (pun intended) without incident. For those familiar with both child raising and adopting this is a major mile stone.

Today we went for yet again more shopping and I'll take this time to introduce some of the rest of our 11 family group via a few snap shots from today's exploits. But first here is a quick shot of Mia this morning waiting to go out...

Down in the lobby,

Jim (& Addison), Sandra with her back to us, Arden with Kevin (& Greer) in the background aunt Val and Kathleen.

Guilan, Lea, Scott

Getting any part of the group together is like herding cats, no disrespect to the group as we are part of the group and are bad as anyone else... the "General" Guilan (in the blue coat does an outstanding job of keeping things moving)

Out on the streets you never know what you will see in China, say a woman taking some (OK, A whole, live) chicken for a friend (look at the right hand)

Back in the "Mall"...

The general lead us through the "mall" to a back alley where Melissa found some great "bargains", I think I'll have to get a second job to to pay the bills, I think she spent 130 yuan (OK, about $16.70 US) the rest of the group also did some shopping while some (Bailey mostly) got scolded for not waring enough clothes. Bailey (Maddie's little friend) chose to wear a skirt and a sweatshirt in 65 deg F weather, most of the local Chinese people had full winter clothes (let alone the kids in their snow suits)

In the picture above Bailey is on the left, her mother (Lea with the stroller) dad Scott with the video camera, Val, Maddie, Melissa and Mia in the background. To see what we mean look at the Chinese people on the right all dressed up in snow suits.

Dinner tonight was again at a Chinese banquet hall (The New Orient, same place as last night for 1/2 the group the rest stayed in the hotel or did other things), in places like this one chooses food from either a refrigerator, or fish tanks, the food is then cooked and brought to the table. We have always enjoyed this place, I think we ate there 2 or 3 times with Maddie, and now twice with Mia and Maddie. We were seated at 2 tables wit a total group of about 11 Adults, 5 babies and Madeline (who again was wonderful).

Tonight's parting shot is Mia having fun.

In case you are wondering, yes, Mia has a bruise over her left eye. She (like Madeline) came this way. It does not appear to be serious, and is getting better. We suspect by the time we get home it will not even be visible... We asked how she got it, and the answer back was, as expected, she fell down. We are not concerned so you shouldn't either.

From Nanchang China with love,

The Meinen's