Rainy Day in Kunming

Today feels like December at home - cold and rainy! Ally wore her little Chinese puff outfit today (looks a little like a snowsuit) and we took the girls to buy some new shoes. Ally got some tennis shoes that are hot pink with an orange puma on them (she was inspired by Diego) and Alaina got 2 pairs of "patent leather" Sunday shoes. Alaina was so cute when we came back to the room - she tried them on and then put them back in the box. She did let us change her outfit (and her panties, finally!) today; although she does still have her same undershirt and purple leggings on! The leggings are size 4T and they are the right length, but baggy in the bottom. The "skinny" turtle neck is perfect - size 4. I am still sure the slim jeans will fall right off of her! She is 42 inches tall.

When Ally put her puffy outfit this morning, she said, "I Santa!". Then when we came back from breakfast, she took off running down the hall (she and Alaina race to the room) and said, "I'm super super fast!" She and Alaina have been playing with S and L's Nintendo DSs. Ally couldn't find the pink one yesterday, and she put her hands up and said, "Where's my DS?"

Alaina's activity level would never indicate a heart condition - she is high energy and loves to run, jump and play. She gives Ally a run for the money!

We visited the Kunming orphanage today. Alaina did just fine, as we asked Susan to tell her that we were only going for a little visit. It was very clean, but there were very few children there. The nanny said that many kids were in school today, but most lived in foster care. We did get to see some precious babies - Doug even picked out a little tiny boy to take home! I just chuckled -- seriously, joking, but he was cute -- fuzzy, spikey black hair. There were several very severly disabled kids we saw too, which was disturbing, since they are unlikely to ever be adopted. The babys we saw looked healthy, but were special needs. The facility was very large and extremely clean. Since Alaina was only there about a week, she wasn't really attached to any of the nannies, but she did wave at them.

Susan took us to a place that sells "hand-work" from the minority groups in China and we got a piece to frame. It is supposedly a specialty from the Yunnan Province. It was pretty expensive and Doug (with Lauren's help) did a good job of bartering down the price! I am a whimp when it comes to that stuff, but Lauren loves it - she sees it as a challenge and she has a method. If it's expensive, she starts below half; if it's not so costly, she starts about half of what they ask. She will walk away and wait for them to come back to her. She also knows that she doesn't need to show them that she has more money than they are asking for the item. She is really good and not afraid to try!

For lunch, we went to a "real" Chinese restaurant where no one spoke any English. Luckily Susan helped us order. It was good (but keep in mind that Chinese has never been on my "top 5" list of fav restaurants!), Doug and the girls really enjoyed it.

I am enjoying the "touring" in the morning and free time in the afternoons. It is nice to be able to relax or shop or play! We brought 2 strollers, but loaned one to another adoptive mom since her luggage didn't arrive until yesterday. Her little girl is only 13 months old, so she needed it more than we did. What is funny is that Alaina is willing to ride in the stroller, so it has become a little of a race to see who gets there first! Today, Alaina picked up Ally and walked over to the stroller and tried to sit down. So, Ally gladly (with a big smile) rode in Alaina's lap from the restaurant back to the hotel.

She is doing so well -- I even got a spontaneous hug today and she will always hold hands with one of us! It's nice to see! I understand that this might be sort of a "honeymoon period" and we still will face some challenges with her adjustment, but we are thankful for the answered prayers of her initial adjustment!

(Doug is taking over now)

Lucy and Ally are taking a nap. Sara, Lauren, Alaina and I just returned from a Wal Mart Run. We wanted to get some headphones, but the ones I wanted had two small plugs so I was worried that it would not work. We did get a few more videos. We got 10 more total. These are all Disney Videos that would cost about $15-$20 each. We got all 10 for about $21. We had bought 2 yesterday and made sure that they worked. There is a menu of about 10 different languages that the videos are in. They are pretty cool. The quality is very good. In Guangzhou last year the girls bought some videos of movies that were not even realeased on DVD yet. They were about $1 each and were basically a person sitting in a theater with a video camera recording the movie. You can hear people coughing and laughing in the background.

Alaina is doing so great. She goes to all of us equally and is smiling and laughing all the time. She is most comfortable in the room with just us.