Lost in Translation

Another great night sleeping. We slept till after 8. She actually ate breakfast-noodles and mini chocolate chip muffins. I actually had brocilli among plenty of other yummy western things. Steve is eating lots of bacon and bread and waffles-pretty much every morning. Lunch and dinner are never consistent so we try to eat a big breakfast. Who am I kidding?? I would be eating a big breakfast regardless. Love the dragonfruit, blood oranges, and pineapple so I am actually eating healthy stuff too. Last night several families ventured to Pizza Hut. She loves pizza-thank goodness! People dance on streets all over the city. Some of them look like they are exercising while others look like they are entertaining. On the way back to the hotel we came across  the Chinese version of a Martin Short skit from SNL. I wish I could post the video bc it was definitely something to see. He was good, even walked on his hands, but some of it was quite comical.  Even other Chinese were filming him, I think they thought he was drunk. Anyway, we received her passport and visa info yesterday so today was a free day. One of the things we received was the newspaper ad from when she was found.  This morning we ventured out shopping. We passed a school right at the time the kids were going home for lunch. I was in this popular children's boutique and a group of probably middle school kids
 surrounded Steve. One of the kids asked Steve if she was his baby. Steve said yes and the kids were like "no, no this is a Chinese baby" we have badges that tell we are here to adopt a baby and Steve showed the kids his badge and they all understood. He showed the kids pics of Will and Luke too. We went into  a tea shop and the people tried to get us to sit and have tea. We said no but they brought us some tea to drink anyway. I was a little concerned they put mushrooms or something else in it as pricey as it was. Steve was just concerned they would make us pay for what we drank bc this store was proud of their tea. I felt a little funny after I drank it but that may have been from the expired coke I drank earlier. BTW EVERYTHING in Walmart is expired so I feel right at home there.  Steve wanted Chinese for lunch but it was already getting late and we were ready to eat. I was corrected when I said the place near our hotel served American Chinese food. It doesn't. It is very authentic, it just offers things like sweet and sour and evidently most other places do not offer that stuff. Our guide gave us a menu we can take with us to order. It tells them we want the food to go and gives us the English translation for the food as well. Restaraunts allow smoking and lots of people smoke so we take everything to go. We consider it a huge blessing our hotel room was not previously inhabited by smokers. We are trying not to take any of these blessings for granted and are trying to remember they are bc of Gods provision as a result of all the prayers from everyone back home. Believe me when I say we feel covered completely in prayer. Ai-Le is a neat freak. She wants her mouth and hands wiped after she eats. She knows how to do it herself and prefers independence. I guess it's a result of doing for herself all this time. Some ladies came up to us and tried to talk to her. You can see her expression in the pics. Our guides suggest it's bc she was so close to her female nannies but she doesn't want any women around. Steve and I believe it's just the opposite. We think she would be MORE trusting of me if they had been sweet to her. Steve said its obviously bc she's so cute and kind of sassy :). She still has no interest in me. I think the most difficult part of it-other than she is wearing Steve out- is I haven't seen any of her personality. She let's loose with Steve, laughs, and makes funny faces. Every time he tells me to look she stops and makes a face at me. I think she knows he is telling me to look at her. Ok I've wandered from my previous story. So we stopped at a convenience store on the way back. I bought a loaf of bread, which turned out to be coconut swirl bread, similar to the cinnamon swirl bread I buy back home. Ok so- a loaf of bread, juice, a baby squeeze pouch, a gallon of water, and a pork bun for her- all for $4. Some things are definitely cheaper here away from the main street. We bought a coke for $.30 and a bottle of water for $.15
We came back to the room. Ai-Le took a bath -her usual pre bed routine. She fought nap time today. She sat on the bed and watched the Jesus Loves Me video and got upset when it stopped. BC I am the only one who has shown her the video, she will let me get close to her to get the video started again. She will point and fuss when it stops. Also we figured out, she will sign when she is hungry or thirsty. It's not the real sign for either of those things however it may be her interpretation of the sign which makes us curious why she would know it. Regardless, it is a major blessing  we are able to understand and she is able to communicate that already. Later she sat on the floor looking around.
She started nodding off but fussed when Steve picked her up. He put her on the bed. She fussed for
literally two seconds then fell right to sleep. Which is what I'm about to do too.

This isn't a birth announcement. This is an ad looking for these babies' birth parents 

Green apple fanta,coke,lays,chips ahoy coffee flavored, pb&j and snickers

She is signing hungry/thirsty

Our entertainment for the night

Sweet girl

She obviously doesn't know I'm taking her picture

Eating breakfast

After 7:30PM the hotel sells dessert half price. I wonder if they 

would just hold the tiramisu for me!?!

Clean freak- she won't be able to use her brothers' bathroom

School -kids are going home for lunch

Yummy Chinese food near the hotel. Or do I just call it food?!?

Making sure daddy is there

See!! Even little Chinese women wear spanx!

Tea shop

Little kids boutique

Loves a bath

Traffic guard at many of the intersections bc it's so crazy

Eating the pork bun I bought at the convenience store

Telling me the video stopped-the only interaction I've had

Nodding off

See her expression-it's not just me, it's ALL women