3 more days

Today was a busy day. We were all up at 6am sharp and went down for breakfast at 6:30. The breakfast buffet here is fantastic. It is a little more western than the last place with a wider variety and everything tastes great! We sat by the window near the river and watched an occasional boat go by. After breakfast, we met Molly and made the rounds for visa pictures and medical examinations. This clinic was much better than the orphanage clinic - very clean and orderly. The doctor thought the little "outie" belly button she has is probably a hernia, which Marnie's mom thought might be the case. Not a big deal, easily fixed. She also thought she was a slight bit pale, perhaps due to her heart defect, though her lip color looks good so she is probably doing pretty well. She seems to have good color to us, but maybe scale is shifted a little for Chinese babies. Will have this checked out as well when we get home.

Next we took a little break and then Marnie went to Molly's room for more paperwork. Neela and I went and checked out the Mattel playroom. It was pretty nice, wall to wall carpet with lots of stuffed animals and a few other toys. She had fun checking out the new stuff and playing with the other kids there. Afterwards, we went back to the room and had lunch. She was pretty tuckered out at this point, since she usually takes a short morning nap and here it was already 1pm. She ate half her lunch and then fell asleep between bites.

At 3 pm we met Molly again for a walk to the local shopping areas. We first walked through a street full of shops for Chinese traditional medicines. (We'll spare you the picture of the hundreds of dried frogs with legs stretched out lying in a box...) Eventually these shops gave way to shops with all kinds of other things, such as small turtles and multicolored fish. The cute puppies and kittens always caught Neela's eye. As we neared the end of this street of traditional shops, the sign of the nearby Holiday Inn loomed in the skyline.

Next we visited more modern shops with pearls, baby clothes, CDs and DVDs, and eventually ice cream. The streets were crowded making me wonder "Don't these people have jobs?" This did seem to be a younger crowd here, at least on this street with the more modern stores. We don't seem to be as much of a novelty as we were in Nanchang, which is nice. Neela has made friends with the kids from another adoption family and insists on holding their hands as we stroll down the street. They don't seem to mind. We think she is going to love having two brothers!

Oh yeah, forgot to mention there was a nice little gift courtesy of Mattel waiting for us in our hotel room when we got back this morning. We were told that these are a White Swan exclusive gift that you can't get anywhere else. Hmmm, appreciate the gesture, but not sure we are big fans. Aside from the whole Barbie thing (which we won't get into), this just seems to have some message about international adoption which just doesn't seem right. Apparently these sell for big bucks on Ebay, so maybe we will give it a new home and put the $ in a savings account for Neela...