Day 5 - Recap

Nanchang is SOOOOO hot.  It is suffocating.  We are doing a tour of her province today.  It is known for its porcelain.

It was the absolute cutest thing you could ever lay your eyes upon yesterday.....Troy got out the laptop to play a movie for the girls.  He put the laptop on the bed and Sadie jumped up on the bed and started shrieking in excitement.  She got in between the two girls and by her own free will THREW her arms around the girls with the hugest smile on her face.  We took a picture and will attach.  She definitely has her times of grieving as well.  She will cry for periods of time that deep grieving cry.  So sad but so necessary.  You can tell that she spent a large amount of time in those exercausers with wheels.  She doesn't have a lot of muscle tone and falls quite a bit.  She's been eating A LOT!  She uses a spoon perfectly.  To get her to sleep at bed or a nap, I will lay her in the crib and she'll cry for a few minutes then I pat her chest for about 5 minutes and she's out.  Little sweet pea.

Our guide in Beijing talked quite a bit about the Family Plan in China.  We've heard such conflicting things in the past.  They are asked to have only one child.  If they have more than one, they must pay a fine.  Many times the fine is up to more than 10 times their annual salary (obviously impossible to pay).  In many of these cases they will not register the child therefore the child does not receive citizenship.  Without citizenship, you have no access to doctors.  This is why a lot of times kids with special needs are given up.  Apparently they are doing a census this year to try to figure out just how many people live in CHina....they really have no idea because of so many hidden kids.  CRAZY.   We were reading the China Daily newspaper and a teeny tiny article talked about a family who brought their seriously ill child to the hospital, they depleted their savings then had to abandon the child in hopes that the hospital would take care of him.  They returned some time period later to find out the hospital let the child die.  They then got arrested for child abandonment.  Heart wrenching.  So much to pray for. 

One funny thing....Marissa used a squatter toilet!  Most bathrooms have 2 or so normal toilets and the rest squatter toilets (a toilet level with the ground).  At one point, Marissa had to go to the bathroom really bad and the bathroom had no real toilets.  So funny!  I'm a little upset with Joani that she didn't warn me that China is a byotp (bring your own toilet paper) country.  I felt very clueless the first time we went to a bathroom and there was NO toilet paper!  We learned quickly to carry a role with us.

Nanchang is worse than Beijing as far as the roads.  There appears to be no system whatsoever on the roads....massive chaos and confusion.  They don't even drive on a particular side of the street.  The open road is yours to be maneuvered however you like.  SOOOOOOO scary!  We came head on with a bus and had to violently slam on the breaks with a near miss all while not wearing seat belts. 

The girls are refusing to go in the pool in China because you have to wear swim caps.  We went to a Walmart yesterday (wow, what an experience!) but they still didn't want me to get them a swim cap! 

Sadie can't wait to meet you all:)