It's been quite a week...

In some ways it's hard to believe she's only been with us for a week yet other times its so apparent she wasn't getting the attention she needed during her 1st year of life.  If only we could get a peek at what life was like for her in the orphanage.  At least she appears to have been well cared for, and for that we are very thankful.  We hope someday we can visit her hometown and the orphanage that took care of her.  Unfortunately, we don't have the opportunity to do that on this trip since we're told the Maogang orphanage, outside of Maoming city, is about a 6 hour drive from here. 

The last two days have been somewhat challenging for us because we've all come down with terrible colds.  Viv had a cold when we received her and I was just getting over one at the time, but it's obvious our immune systems aren't used to 1 yr old runny noses and head colds because Todd and I both have terrible colds, while Viv is on definitely on the mend!  That girl constantly needs to be on the move.  We believe she's making up for lost time.  She now loves to be on the floor and crawls everywhere.  Of course, she really likes the marble floor we have by the desk.  We're not sure which she enjoys more, the power cord for the laptop or seeing how badly she can scare us when she attempts to stand and take a few steps on the marble.  So far she has taken a handful of steps on her own and we're amazed how she can go from a squat to a full stand and back to a squat without holding onto anything.  The girl has some power thighs!   We also believe she's having so much fun now that she never wants to nap or go to sleep for Fear Of Missing Out on something (we call this FOMO).  She will do everything she can to entertain herself when we try to put her to sleep.  It can be challenging when we're both not feeling well!  This afternoon we went out for a 2 hour walk, thinking she would nap in the carrier, but she stayed awake and looked around for almost the entire time.  Todd had to take every distraction away from her, including his coat zipper, before she would fall asleep and then it was short lived because we stopped walking for a few minutes... Of course we keep telling ourselves she needs to be alert because she's so incredibly intelligent and has a very inquisitive mind ;-)

She already enjoys reading the China Daily

And of course, she turns right to the business section.

Since we're not feeling well and we need to sleep when she does, this post is going to be very short.  Today was a free day and we had hoped to go to the animal Safari in Guangzhou, but when we woke up feeling so sick we opted not to go.  It was very cold and overcast, so we stayed in for most of the day and then went out for a nice afternoon walk in the city.  After 7 days in a hotel room, we are starting to go a bit crazy.  Thankfully it's a very nice room in a beautiful hotel. 

Below are some pics of the city that we took on our walk.

Walking along the Pearl river.  This river runs along our hotel.

One of the many bridges along the Pearl river.

Still some signs of old China.

Getting ready for the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year).

Shops all around the city sell red lanterns and flowers for the festival.

Street food - chicken on a stick.

Somehow we stumbled into the garment district. 

 

 

 

 

 

Selling kumquats - Another symbol for the Spring Festival.

Yesterday we went to the jade and pearl wholesale market.  That was a bit overwhelming!  There were floors and floors of little booths with people selling pearls and all sorts of jade; bracelets, pendants and carvings.

The Wholesale Pearl market and its many floors

 

 

 

Another free ride at the Pearl market

Tomorrow morning we have our visa appointment and in the afternoon we have our appointment at the US Consulate where we have an Oath-taking ceremony.  Then tomorrow night we have the option to go on a river cruise around the city.  We hope we're feeling well enough to do the cruise because the lights around this city are amazing.  They're even more amazing now because everything is being decorated for the Spring Festival (Chinese New Year) which starts on February 2nd.  It would be fun to stay and see the celebration, but we're far more eager to get home. 

We'll post more as we have time and start to feel better. Pray that we are well for our flight home or it could really be a rough ride.

Below are a few pics we need to share because they are just too cute.

Sucking her favorite two fingers.

She's already learned to ham it up when the camera comes out.

She loves paddy cake!

It's so much fun to see her smile and laugh.