Today in China

Our day so far has been interesting.  We met for breakfast with our friends.  It is so nice having friends from home here with us.  It certainly has been a blessing for us as new parents to be able to  have someone we know and trust to ask for advice.  God was so good in working out the details so we could be here together.


After breakfast we headed to one of the few remaining old homes in the area.  China's rapid growth in the cities has meant that most of the older homes have been knocked down to make room for high rise modern buildings.  

Brooke and her new friend from our group enjoyed their time together.  This little girls is so sweet and has been such fun to be with and so good for Brooke.  It is amazing to see how kids can get along and communicate even with language barriers in place.

We also went to one of the markets.  Guangzhou is a harbor city and known for their pearls.  We saw bag after bag of pearls in the stores.  

Your prayers on our behalf helped us through a very tough time with Brooke today.  To this point we had not seen one single tear but when they came today, they came hard.  The grief of a little girl who had her world turned upside down was very hard to see and hear but in the long run we know how important it is for her to grieve.  We stayed with her, assuring her of our love. We knew this would come and expect it to happen again but that did not make it easy to see.  She is doing OK and has needed extra hugs and kisses this afternoon.  We are glad to supply these.  Our agency requires pre-adoption training that helped us prepare for how best to support her through the transition and grief and we are so glad we knew what to do when this happened.  

Later in the afternoon she had a good time playing with some of her toys.  She did her dolls hair to look like her own.

Tomorrow we will go to have Brooke's TB test checked.  From there we will go to one of the favorite places for adoptive families to relax and get souvenirs - Shamian Island.   

Thanks for your prayers.