Thursday, October 10th

We started off again to the breakfast buffet and again with a rocky start.  She cried the whole time I held her and Matt was getting her food. Not sure if she was just hungry or missed Matt being away. Once the food came and he sat down, she ate and ate.  She loves steamed egg and noodles and like many adopted babies at first, I'm sure she'd ever quit eating if we didn't cut her off some point.  I have feeling she didn't get as much of those type of foods as she wanted.

After breakfast, we did FaceTime with Tru and Mom and then Rob and Jeanie also called us today on there.  It's so nice seeing family and friends from home, and I miss Tru terribly.  He is too cute and he likes to see EK on there and show her things.

We met with the group at the van at 10:00am to go on a field trip to the Tengwang Pavilion here in Nanchang.  It has built and rebuilt many times, but the first was built in 653 AD and is one of the three great towers of China.  All 3 towers have a great piece of literature, with this having a poem written about this great piece of architecture.  Some parts of it's design were actually borrowed for the Forbidden City.  We went to the top floor and watched a short 3 part program - traditional Chinese singing, then dancing, and the music with very old traditional instruments.  It was all so pretty and interesting.   It was hot though and parents and babies alike were sweaty.

Afterwards, our guide wanted to take us to a restaurant in Nanchang with at least one spicy dish since this province is known for spicy foods.  Honestly, we weren't really looking forward to more Chinese food, but this was absolutely delicious.   She explained that southern Chinese cooks are better than northern Chinese cooks because they cook with flavor.  (Matt assured her it was the same in the US).  ;) The babies ate more steamed egg and noodles for lunch.  I also made EK some sticky formula and fed it with a spoon.  She again ate very, very well.  It was so delicious and served family style the way most Chinese is served,  and there was a lot left over.  It is considered impolite to leave food, but there was no way we could eat it all.  We were sitting with the Bujnoseks so we split the leftovers with them and took the rest for dinner.

We came back to the hotel and EK wasn't sleepy yet, so we let the Aidan go swimming with the other children here in the hotel.  J just watched on the side with us.  Aidan got a few swimming tips from Mr. TW who was swimming with his daughter, Emma, and they had a few swimming races.

After swimming, we went back to the room to let Ellie Kay nap. She rested well.  We played with her for the rest of the evening.

For dinner, the boys had instant soup we had brought with us (love having a hot pot in the room!), Matt and I have leftover Chinese, and EK had leftover steamed egg and noodles warmed with hot water and some baby food.

We gave EK bath #2 and tried our guide's suggested method of bathing with her.  She still didn't love it, but didn't act nearly as scared.  She still cried most of the time, so I worked super quick and handed her off to Matt.

During the day, Ellie Kay appeared to be really slowly warming up to me, so we decided to let me try to get her to sleep.  For Matt now, she'll fuss a little bit, but then fall to sleep on his shoulder.  Then, he lays her in the crib, me she'll sleep soundly. Well, I tried it and she screamed and screamed and screamed.  She was constantly reaching out for him and trying to see where he was.  It appeared to be really stressing her, so I handed her to Matt.  She fussed maybe 30 seconds and fell dead asleep.  Well, it's official.   Total Daddy's girl!  Hopefully, it will get easier when Matt goes back to work.  If not, we have some hard days ahead of us.  I think it should though.

She's a very personable baby.  She likes to reach out to touch your face, play silly little games, and she laughs easily.  So thankful for her!  

Amazing that through this whole time of waiting, God knew of a petite little baby girl who would be born in the small village of Wanzai in Jiangxi province of China and that she would be our daughter.  His plan is always perfect and His "thoughts higher than our thoughts".