Tuesday

What a day today has been.  We started with Rachel talking to her friend Laci on skype.  They were both so excited to talk & see each other.  But, I had to cut them off as we had to meet the guide at 9am.  We headed out to the jade factory (I would have preferred to skip it since I've been there before.  The jade is more expensive and the guides are given kick backs of whatever their groups purchase.  We didn't purchase there last time, and wouldn't this time either.)  Rachel wanted several things.  I finally had the chance to pull out my Chinese/English dictionary and point out "expensive" then say Guangzhou and point to "cheap".  She was okay with that and didn't ask for anything else while there.  Then we headed to the Great Wall.  I will post pics in the morning (as it is 10:30pm) right now.  We went to a different place than we did last time, so that was good.  Rachel didn't want to walk it (although I did!), so we just walked a little ways and went back.  I took tons of pics.  Then we walked through the little "shops" they have there.  She got a little figure of the Great wall, a lighted plastic carving thing and some post card pics of the Great Wall.  She was very happy and it cost me less than $8.  Then we went to lunch.  The guide does not usually takes families to lunch so he didn't order the right size (we ended up eating less than 1/2 of the food) as he got family size portions rather than 2 person size portions.  At any rate, the food was VERY good. I did realize, though, that the guides & drivers incentive to take their groups there is they get free food.  It was very interesting.  I hadn't realized that last time, I just knew the guide never ate with us.  Then we went to the Olympic grounds and walked around for a little while.  We got rained on a bit and it was a bit chilly (of course, I had left my coat at the hotel!), but not horrible.   We stopped there because we had to burn some time before my new friend, Kirsty, got back from school.  She's a 3rd grade teacher and she offered to give us dinner & do laundry (we did not do laundry, though).  It was a priceless opportunity for Rachel to talk to her and me get clarification about things.  Among other things, I found out she can understand a lot, but doesn't know what to say.  That was good to know.  So, we're working on the English part.  I'm confident that she will be bi-lingual in a few weeks.  It was good for her to talk to Laci for a while to find out that English gets easier to learn when she gets home and is in an English speaking environment.  I learned far more than I can blog tonight.  I need to make notes as I think of the things and will post more about that later.  Oh, she did say that she was very happy with her new family.  And that she will be even more happy to be in her new home with her father and sister as well.  She said her heart is very full.  Oh, and she's VERY excited about having dogs! :-)

One last thing.  She said that she only received 1 package (the original photo book and letter we sent).  She never received the one we sent from home, only the one sent from Ann from China.  I'm not sure why, but doesn't matter.  She said that she slept with the photo book several nights after she received it.  Oh, and she knew she was going to be adopted in June--so shortly after we sent our letter of intent.  Cool.  She did say that she did not believe that we were going to come.  And she couldn't believe that "this beautiful house could be her house".  So precious.  I tell you, one thing I've prayed for over the last few weeks was that I would have an overwhelming love for her like I do Megan.  And I'll tell you it has happened.  And every day I am more amazed by her.  Every day.  She truly is an amazing girl and everyone who meets her agrees!

I must get to bed!!!  More when we get up...