Nanchang Day 3 - The Pavilion

This is us at Teng Wang Pavilion. We were just about to walk up the 89 stairs to get to the top to enter.









The detail to the building was just amazing!






















































We got to see some of her personality today. She is so sweet and is just like any other child who wants to be played with!
















Tonight during and after supper, she laughed and responded to us like she hasn't before.














Our guide who takes good care of us - Hellen!


















This morning we were able to take it easy and relax with nowhere to go. Our paperwork is done for the most part here so we just get to sightsee & play with our baby girl! We started the day with a Skype call to our families. We began by doing Skype with my family who were having a Birthday Party for my sister Alicia. We were able to sing along and watch them eat cookie cake and ice cream. We got to see Halle Kate and she acts like she is good to go! She talked a little more than she has been. She said "Hey" then a lot of jabber followed with "Bye!" She blows us kisses and seems to be having a great time running her finger through the icing of the cookie she was eating. We love seeing everyone especially Halle Kate, but it is hard to see her and not miss her so much. We typically fight back tears and then just let them rip once we hang up! We then did a Skype call with the Cole's in North Carolina. We talked to them and they were able to see our dark headed beauty a little more. She is becoming more and more open and lively with us! After all of our calls, we headed down for our usual 10am breakfast and visits with the other families.

We got dressed and met our guide and one of the families for a tour of the Teng Wang Pavilion this afternoon. It was just a short 10 minute walk to the Pavilion and it was really a beautiful sight. Pavilions must be relatively common in China and this one is the most famous in all of South China right here in Nanchang. The pavilion was renovated in 1989 so there are 89 stairs that must be climbed in order to enter the pavilion made for the emporers. We got to the top to find beautiful views of the city as well the Gan River where the buildings in the horizon were just everywhere. It is a really nice view and then a bridge that looked like the Golden Gate Bridge just not quite as big was also seen from the Pavilion! We entered and were taken by elevator to the top floor. We viewed each floor and then walked down to the next one below. We enjoyed hearing some of the history of the provincial city that our baby girl was born into. We were able to buy many things to bring back her room and keepsakes to give her later for such great prices. It all seemed so cheap and we got tons of things like a doll, a parasol, a drum, a dress and several other items. We toured each level and Anna Claire missed most of the excitement because it was her nap time and she couldn't stay awake. She laid on my chest in the baby carrier and slept for at least and hour and a half.

We then headed to eat at a restaurant near the Pavilion. We seem to be stuck in a rut because finding food that we like is hard to find especially since we cannot read the menu! Our guide helps us, but it is hard to know what to ask for! She laughed at us many times while we were asking if they had certain dishes. They don't have Wonton Soup, Sweet & Sour Soup, Egg Rolls, Sweet & Sour Chicken just to name a few. We all pretty much eat fried rice, a vegetable like Broccoli or Cauliflower and then tonight we branched out and got Pork Dumplings too. Our food was very good tonight and we had a great time!

Anna Claire drank a couple of ounces of formula this morning several times and kept it all down so we were encouraged. At dinner though she wouldn't drink her milk, but was so sweet and happy. She was all smiles and was really responding to me when I played with her. I fed her a little bit of egg from the fried rice since they told me she ate that at her foster home. We came back to the room and we had the best time. She was playing, laughing at us, smiling so big and showing us her dimples. She was even rolling over on the bed which we had not seen her do yet. We were most excited about Anna Claire talking to us tonight. She let us hear her voice for the first time really. She was saying something that sounds like "dada" even though we know that can't be what she is saying. (Their word for father is "papa".) She just squealed and giggled with us and that was really fun to see after having a baby that seemed to be a little shut down. Then all of the sudden she threw up again and it went all in her hair and even in her eyes. We gave her a bath and she cried the hardest that she has the whole time. But I was able to soothe her and she fell off to sleep. The last time she threw up was a little while after she ate table food so I no longer believing that she had been eating table food. Her info from China also said she could crawl and when we got her she cannot even sit up on her own so our information is not always sound. We are a little concerned about her not getting enough liquids so you all can pray that this will be the last of the sickness and that she will take her milk or at least some Pedialyte tomorrow!