Day 10 Friday, April 20

Allie woke up around 4 am this morning crying. She let ME pick her up and rock her back to sleep, I (Blair) was so happy that she's trusting me more. But the sign of the week that I'm a first-time parent: I forgot the words to 'Rock a Bye Baby'....now is that pathetic or what? :)

Today we went to the largest Buddhist temple in China, 9 stories tall. See the picture of the three Buddhas to give you a sense of how big this place was. We respectively declined the baby blessing from the monks, but one of the 'staff' wanted to take our picture for a poster he was producing. ?

We drew quite a crowd watching us, and for the first time this week, the Chinese grandmas came by to coo over Allie and Arrabella, and tell us how much they appreciated us adopting them. We made sure to have Cordelia tell them that we were the ones that were blessed, and that we appreciate the opportunity to raise their baby girls.

Then it was back to the mall we visited yesterday--I think it was called the 'Li Wan' complex--for Dim Sum and more shopping (what else).

We bought a stroller on the island today for 85 yuan ($11). We were borrowing the other one this week, but figured we will need something to help get Allie and our luggage through the airports next week. Speaking of luggage, I found a nice big red bag for 100 yuan ($13). Everything is so inexpensive here, a dinner for the six of us runs about 200 yuan. If the language barrier wasn't so bad, I'd think about being an ex-patriot. :)

Tonight we are thinking about staying in and having pizza delivered!! I guess there's a Papa Johns in Guangzhou that delivers....it really is a global market. :)

Tomorrow is a "free" day, nothing planned with Cordelia. Sunday, we will be visiting a park in Guangzhou that we were supposed to go to today. Monday is very exciting: it looks as if Ralph and I (with Cordelia of course) will be taking the five hour bus ride down to Maoming, the city where Alison and Arrabella were left. Both families would like to get pictures of the respective "finding" spots--Alison's is a Kindergarten, Arrabella was found near an office building.

Prior to lunch we visited another Friendship Store but this one did not specialize in one type of item, rather it was a huge room with lots of porcelains, art, embroidery and lots of pretty things to look at and buy. Allie was a big hit with the shop girls and at one time was observed holding court with about seven of them. She was giggling and enjoying being the center of attention. Boy, are we going to be in trouble. :)

Allie had to visit a clinic today. I (Tami) noticed that her cough has been getting worse and now she is pulling at her ear. Sure enough, she has an ear infection. So this afternoon I mixed up the $140. antibiotic from home and started her on it. Only seems to slow her down when it's bedtime, then the screaming starts. I have to admit it's nice to have her going to Blair so I can give my back rest. Allie is a real chunk!! But she sure is fun, I can't wait for all of you to meet her.