July 8th

Our first night with Julia went great. We were happy she slept through the night. Her nanny said they did not have a/c in the orphanage. She seemed pretty comfy in our room with a/c.

When she woke up this morning and looked at us, she started to pout, her lips quiverred and she got teary eyed but then she stopped. Having only seen about 2 rooms in her life, and now seeing so many people everywhere, and her silly family staring at her all the time, she must be in shock.

We headed to breakfast in the restaurant of our hotel. As i went to put Julia in the high chair she started crying. So, she just sat on my lap. She eventually ate some watermelon, and noodles.

We had to go back to where we picked her up yesterday at 9:30 am for more paperwork, a sort of drivers license-type family picture and an interview to finalize our adoption.

There were 3 other families before us waiting to be interviewed. It was a long morning. I think the trip really wiped her out and us, too. The only plus to this part of the day was getting to talk with the other families.

After napping, she played with Jake and Grant. I know they are pretty proud of her. They sure make this journey more interesting for her. She is starting to grin more, especially with them.

This evening, I decided to use the front baby carrier, (where she faces me) to tote her around. We wanted to try to go out for dinner in the mall. The front carrier was one of the first things our social worker said to get. I really doubted the idea of a front carrier since Julia is almost 2 but I was wrong. She cried at first but once she got settled in, she loved it. She did great! And so much easier for me. She is so heavy to constantly carry in my arms. So off to dinner we went!

Since we haven't had a guide to take us to dinner in Guangzhou, we have been eating American food to be safe for familiarity. It's been BK, Pizza H, Subway, just because we were scared to venture out. I have to say, I thought all of those meals were so unsatisfying. As we walked around tonight eyeing all the noodle dishes and rice dishes people were eating, we finally ventured out of the American food chains. Our meal that Jake chose for us was So delicious. So fresh. I should just do a whole section on the foods we have had in China. Unlike Jake, I've tried nothing crazy, just delicious noodles, and rice dishes. I doubt we will order American food for the remaining part of our trip.

Back to the dinner...so Julia sat in her carrier still facing me and I fed her noodles. She would eat them like a little bird. We sweated together (she can put off some body heat) and we ate our noodles. She then ended her meal with a few licks of ice cream from Jake's ice cream bar he had bought at the supermarket. Our dinner at the mall was a success.

I'm feeling so much better about our situation with food now and getting around with Julia. I thought by not having a guide to order, and pick out the foods it could be challenging. It's not bad at all. Plus, they have pictures on the menus and a lot are in English, too.

We came back to the hotel, put her pj's on and she drifted off to sleep quickly.

We really enjoyed our first full day with our  little princess empress. We are all crazy about her.