Fun day!

Monday was a really fun day. For many years the medical clinic and the US consulate were located on Sha Mian island. Most families stayed at a hotel called the white swan and there were lots of shops. The consulate and the medical clinic have moved and the hotel in under renovation so it's not what it used to be but it is still a really neat place. Away from the city. Lots of trees, very park like. There were lots of little shops with very traditional Chinese things in them. I was excited to do some shopping!

Our first stop though was a wholesale market for lots of different things but mostly embroidery and pearls. I didn't get any pearls since we had gotten jade the day before, but we did do some damage at the embroidery shop. There was a lady following me around with a basket and every time I picked something up she would punch in the price on a calculator and show me and then Jenny would punch that number into our currency app. It was a funny process. 

We then headed to the island. We had so much fun!  We had about 2 hours and we just walked around and shopped!  We bought gifts and Chinese dresses and other things. Everything is very inexpensive.  All the shop owners were so nice. One shop we had heard about was called Jenny's.  

Her is my jenny with Chinese Jenny. 

She was so so nice and we bought some Chinese dresses there.  As we were leaving she called jenny over and told her to pick out a necklace for herself. She picked out a lovely necklace on a red thread with 2 jade circles.  It was so sweet. We found that in several places. People just gave us things for being good customers. The people here have all been so nice. 

Several of the shop owners asked us where Sarah was from. One lady asked us and we told her she was from Guangdong province.  She asked if we had adopted her and we said yes. She said, "From China?"  Yes. And she replied, " I wondered just because she doesn't look Chinese ". Cracked me up. She looks Chinese to me. And trust me she looks way more Chinese an anyone else in our family. 

The island was very beautiful. 

We saw soldiers marching as well and lots of shops had shirts with our president dressed as a communist. Interesting. 

We had such a fun time there. Jenny especially enjoyed shopping for her cousins and friends. 

We ate lunch at a place called Lucy's. I had also heard a lot about it. It was mostly American style food. Sarah and I had a grilled cheese and jenny and Shane had hamburgers. 

After we got back to the hotel Shane took a short nap and me and the girls went down to the fish pond. 

So sweet !!

These fish are crazy!!!  They would follow wherever Jenny went even if she want throwing bread. 

Sarah likes the fish for few minutes but they were really jumping and getting us wet so she retreated to the bench nearby. Seriously how cute is she. 

Blowing kisses. 

Later in we decided to try to the Irish Pub for supper. We ran into some new friends in the elevator and they joined us. They have a daughter close to Jenny's age and it was such a fun dinner. Hearing about each other's processes and visiting. The food was fantastic too. And the menu was in English. 

It was such a fun night. We finished up with baths and who resist a wet headed baby!!

Little miss did not want to go to bed last night and we had a few tears but she slept great. She continues to work on attachment to us. She loves to be held and ,gives hugs freely. She still walks up to random people to be picked up sometimes. All in time. Well get there. We are just at the beginning. 

It was very quiet at the hotel last week. But over the weekend lots of families from our agency came in and they had there gotcha day yesterday. So fun to get to see computer friends in real life and see them get these long awaited and prayed over children. Adoption is a beautiful things and it binds you together with others on this journey. We are so blessed to be able to watch The Lord move and set the lonely in families. We serve an awesome God!!