Friday, October 11th

Last night, EK only woke up once at midnight or so. Matt tried a bottle which she refused, so he just walked around a couple of minutes patting her back and she fell back to sleep. She then slept until 7 and woke up happy. Amazing progress considering her foster mom fed her around the clock and played with her before putting her back to bed.

This morning started much easier. She was super happy and playful.   We quickly got ready, and after our morning talk with Tru, again visited the buffet.  This time, she didn't cry when Matt went to get her food. She ate VERY well again. She's a little eater and can't imagine she'll stay so tiny for long. During breakfast, Jacob said he wasn't feeling great, so I headed back upstairs with him without eating much breakfast since I'd been mostly feeding EK.  He was having some nausea and tummy pain so we decided he shouldn't do the scheduled touring this morning so he could rest and stay close to a bathroom.  So Matt stayed since there was no reason for EK to go and she could get a good nap. (Easy decision of who should stay since I can't get her to sleep yet).

Aidan and I met our group at the van at 10, and our guide took us on tour of the "countryside".  This was very different from the countryside that we think of.  I guess it is actually less city like, but it's not countryside.  It was about a 20-30 minute drive away and then we got and toured a village.  Most of the people in this village were farmers.  Most had no running water, but instead had a pump outside that they hand pumped the water up from a well which was used for cooking and washing.  It was shared among many families.  They also had a "public toilet" and our guide taught us the symbol for which was men and women.  Aidan actually had to go quite bad, but I couldn't get him to use the public toilet.  It looked like a very old, brick building that was very short (low ceiling).  Not sure what it looked like inside, but had quite a bit of rubbish lying around outside, so I didn't really want to venture in either.

We enjoyed seeing the sights of this village.  Like everywhere in China, there was laundry hanging out to dry.  There were chickens and dogs about.  (In this area, they keep dogs as pets - not food:).  There were a few little children about, and our guide had prepared us by telling us we could buy candy for the village children ahead of time.  That was fun.  The children were oh so cute!  The moms and grandmothers were very excited for the children to get candy.  This was one of the most interesting things yet for me to see.  Our guide said for the babies in foster care that this is very much like where they would have lived.  It was amazing to think of how different we must seem to her and how different the US will be to her.  I saw the baby strollers just like in a picture we had received where EK was in a stroller just like that.  I saw little ones walking around with no diapers in their split pants.   It was fascinating and sad and wonderful all at once. I still feel great sadness for EK losing her foster mother and for the foster mother's loss of our sweet girl.  

She took us to an area where they share farming plots. No one owns land in China. It all belongs to the government and your plot size is assigned based on your family size.  We saw fields of rice which was very cool since Jiangxi province is known for rice, porcelain, and war.  (The first shot for the Chinese civil war in the 20s started in Nanchang).  We also saw grapefruit trees, sesame stalks, pumpkin patches, and lots of other green vegetables. They are all fertilized with human waste, and this is a big reason we can't have any uncooked greens while here.  Our systems wouldn't be able to handle it and we'd get sick.  We saw some farmers working their plots with then traditional large sun hats on.  We saw others boxing up their veggies to stick on their carts to take to market.  We saw one lady washing her clothes in a dirty large body of water.  Evelyn, our guide, showed us their red couplets on their doors which they change out every New Years.  Only one had white which mean they had a recent death.  There was one house marked with crosses which meant they were Christians.

We saw a community market with pork hanging that had been killed that morning. There were lots of veggies for sale and a large tub of live fish as well.

They also had a small spot of exercise equipment furnished by the government since most of these people wouldn't be able to afford a gym.   Aidan had fun trying it out.

We headed back and most of the families had McDonalds delivered for lunch and fortunately J was feeling better and able to eat.  EK was sleeping when we got back and Matt said she'd been "an angel".  I think some little girl already has her Daddy wrapped around her little finger.  :)

After EK woke and we tried to feed her the "sticky formula", (she didn't want it this time), we fed her baby food which she ate along with her first fries.  She loved them of course.

We all were going a bit stir crazy because there's not much around here so we attempted to explore about a bit.   I carried EK in the carrier which she tolerated well (yeah!).  After much looking around, we finally found our way to a park on the backside of our hotel with some pretty plants, but stagnant water features.  We had more stares here than anywhere yet.   People in China stare at Americans quite a bit and the boys have had strangers come up and ask for pictures with them. But today outside of hotel in non-tourist city with a Chinese baby, all the locals were staring.  I tried to say ni hau (hello which is pronounced "nee how") to all of them.  Most were just friendly and curious. But we did have an odd thing happen.  We must have looked suspicious or something :), but we had a man from the hotel watching us from a 2nd or 3rd story floor.  He  first yelled at a group of cute little girls for talking (saying hi and waving ) to us.  Then, we stopped and watched people harvesting fruit from a persimmon tree.   One of the ladies was super sweet so she gave us 3 persimmons and said "for you" in English.  The man started yelling at her too, so we were bit confused about what to do, so I offered the fruit back to her, but she smiled and motioned for us to keep it.  We've had several episodes where people are yelling at each other around us, and it's a bit disconcerting when you have no idea what the problem is.

After EK's afternoon nap, we had instant soup and beef jerky again for dinner and decided to have an adventure in her province.  We took a taxis with Tanya, Jason & Aubrey, TW & Emma, and Tina and Tom to visit the Star of Nanchang.  It is the second tallest Ferris Wheel in the world (beat out by one built in Singapore a few years ago by several feet).  It is 525ft tall and holds 480 people at once. I have never seen such a huge Ferris Wheel.  It goes super slow and takes about 30 minutes to go around.  We all went on it including EK who decided it was time to show how much she can play, bounce, and be cute.  :).   It was a beautiful night view of the city.  Afterwards, we rode on these little car like things that rocked backwards.  I have no idea what those were called.  I don't think anyone there spoke any English other than us.  EK never got scared during any of it. She was just super playful.  It was very nice for the boys to do something fun outside of the hotel room.  They've had a lot of quiet sitting during nap times, so this was a fun change for the evening.

Back to the hotel for showers and bed.  Matt got EK down. They have a nice routine going now.   :)