Tuesday Evening/Wed morning

Good morning from China! Last night after everyone went to bed I stayed up to send pix and typed up a nice long blog explaining the visit with the fosters and other things …. suffice to say, the connection was lost and so was the note …thought it was saved but alas, no such luck!! So I will try again – this time in Word and copy and paste it!

As some of you know all 3 of our China girls are from Jiangxi … just so happened that way – and Sarabeth, home now 3 yrs was from Nanchang – fostered her entire life with one family who dearly loved her and did EVERYTHING for her … a true China “emperess”. We keep in loose contact with them – pix and letters over the email a few times a year. We had Angela call them to set up a time to have dinner – planned for 5:30 Tues night to meet at this hotel and go down the street for dinner. All of us except Angela (who is now down with a cold/sore throat…please pray for her) went out for lunch and onto Walmart for a few things. John had transferred all the pix we have taken of Sarabeth into one folder and wanted a flash drive to download them and give to the fosters. We came back to find the family already at the hotel at 3:00!!! Not a true surprise to us considering how they frequently just would show up during our week adopting SB … we had to insist they stop as it was truly confusing for dear SB.

Anyway – they decided to change plans – wanted us to go to their home to visit and then onto a restaurant of their choice close to their home. No problem – they also brought along the woman who taught SB to speak a bit of English prior to her adoption – this woman is now in college 2nd year. We went by taxi to their home – truly my worst taxi ride EVER …the driver was obviously the best at playing “chicken” with all the other drivers/buses/mopeds/bicyclists and wanted to show us his expertise!! ACK!! Lushi was laughing at me as I would gasp and say “I’m gonna die!” We pulled into a back alley and then onto an even “backer” alley – SB lived in a 6th floor apt and I was panted heavily by the time I reached the top – no surprise to me that I am totally out of shape!! Their home is quite small with 2 bedrms, small living area and kitchen/ bath….and no heat. It has been below freezing here several days and it was quite chilly! They offered clementines and a crunchy corn stick snack that SB used to love. We chatted a bit and then were off to walk to the “close by” restaurant. NOT!! But although the walk was long and very cold (poor Angela), we went through the “largest” market in Nanchang – veggie/fruit and clothes venders of all kinds – this was a true community sense that we experienced. A small city within a city. We arrived at the restaurant – VERY large and with 3 inch pine wood trim everywhere – walls of brick or white pine logs everywhere – very different from anything we have experienced in China.

Angela and the elder sister ordered- the first dish to arrive looked like beans and beef – I, Mary, took a “bean” and bit into it …. It was a pepper … and a very HOT one at that. I did not regain my taste buds for ½ of the meal!! Several dishes came out that we had never had before – some good, some not so good. The fosters all the while encouraged us to eat, eat!! while they did very little eating. At the end of the meal they brought out some fried thin bread that we have had at the Cow Bridge Restaurant before – very yummy. Dujie dropped two sets of chop sticks and a spoon (broke it) – she is a bit clumsy or probably just mindlessly active.

After dinner the family wanted us to then go the younger sister’s home – we have seen pix of this and know it is very modern and comfortable. We were just tuckered out and knew dear Angela needed some meds and rest for her cold. We taxied back to the hotel.

The dynamic duo of Lushi and Christina is forming true sibling love and hate – chiding eat other, teasing, blaming each other – they chatter on and on. So glad we bought a bag of sunflower seeds – this has kept them busy in front of the TV during the long hours of nothingness that the adoption waiting can produce – the weather earlier was rainy, cold and even snowy. No walking streets during that!

We are now into our Wednesday and getting ready for breakfast – will meet up with another WCF family today – the McNews – for dinner. Tomorrow we will be off to GZ hopefully and onto warmer weather and the comfortable “ahh” of Shamian Island!

As always, we are thankful for your prayers and comments – they encourage us while we are so far away!!

Mary and John