More from Nanning

This picture is of Gracie in a beautiful red outfit her foster mom had dressed her in to meet us.
Tonight is our last night in Nanning, Guangxi province. Today we went to a park on a mountain and saw some beautiful sculptures and visited a buddist temple. I got in trouble for taking a picture of budda. We are learning more and more about Gracie. Today we learned that when she doesn't get her way she just sits down and won't move until she's ready. It was really funny to watch.
She's also beginning to learn more about us and one way she's coping with these new people in her life is taking turns playing favorites. One time she's MaMa's girl the big sister's girl, then BaBa's girl. yesterday was a daddy's girl moment while we were watching a Chinese children's show Gracie came over to me and wanted to sit on my lap. Awwww man was that a real heart warmer since it was her first indepentent sign of acceptance of me.
There were some other tear jerker moments. The day we got her we came to the room and she was still upset with all the changes and these strange people. She didn't want anything to do with us until I handed her a bag of her formula. Then she carried it around with her for a while. Then we got her settled down enough to take a family photo together. Then after a while we offered her a Cheerio and she started taking hands fulls of them so we gave her a little bowl and she started putting all the Cheerios in the bowl. So she was holding her formula bag and a bowl of Cheerios. We showed her how to eat them and she put her little fingers in the bowl and took a Cherrio then (tear jerker alert) offered to feed it to me (dad) and she put it in my mouth then after 2 or 3 Cheerios I took a Cheerio and offered it to Gracie and she ate it out of my hand Diana and I almost lost it at that moment because it was her first gesture of acceptance of us. Sheesh was that amazing.



We thought we would be the only westerners here but it turns out there are six other families who's adopted with us her. We see them at breakfast and strolling around town (we're pretty easy to spot) We've even met a family from Vancouver WA (the Hagedorn's) we had to travel to Nanning China to meet our neigbors! Small world indeed!
Gracie loves the water and especially bath time and tonight she actually started a wrestling match with daddy! She laughs at Ba Ba (Chinese version of Da Da) all the time.
Please keep us in you prayers. I (dad) have a cold, pray no one else gets it and that I get over it quickly.
Pray for us and the the other familes who are flying to Guangzhou tomorrow. Its about a one hour flight but with freshly minted toddlers who don't understand english in tow that's a long time.
Pray Gracie's medical appointment on Sunday (Saturday US) for its really important that this goes well.

Quick hitters:
Far fewer people speak english here than in Beijing which has made for some interesting moments.
In China you can take a picture of the outside of a Walmart but not the inside (I got caught trying to take a picture of the raw squid section).
Traffic is crazy here too! From what our guide told us its a lot like the rules of boating back home biggest vehicle has the right of way and bikes and pedestrians are last on the food chain.
We're a tourist attraction especially with a Chinese baby in tow.
ALL the guys think Sarah is quite the looker.
The child's phrase for going poo poo is O bah bah the word for dad is bah bah. Coincidence?
More later.