Friday Update form Rob (Again!)

Hello friends and family back at home. It is about 2:00 p.m. here.

Today is Piper's birthday! We have had a good day so far, and the party is tonight. We wish all of you could be there. Peter (our guide) and Jane (who works for our agency and is Chinese) have made arrangements to bring in birthday cake after dinner for Piper. All of our friends in our group are excited about the party and some of them have already told us she is getting gifts tonight!! They are all so nice to us. We will take lots of pictures and video. We do not think Piper has had cake yet, but tonight is going to be her night. We are going to cover her in a trash bag and let her go to town! We cannot wait to watch it! We will try to get some photos of that e-mailed out again. Then we can get the e-mail chain going again for you all.

This morning we loaded the bus and Peter took our group to the Changsha Embroidery Factory. It was pretty interesting and we saw some amazing art work. It is kind a like cross stitching in the U.S.A but not crossed (if that makes any sense). These women make some very interesting things and they also make a lot of the silk Chinese products. We bought several things to take home with us and some early Christmas shopping as well!

The temperature here today has been slightly cooler than yesterday so far. There was some cloud coverage and a nice breeze when we were visiting the emboidery factory. It was mostly indoors anyway. We have noticed with everything here that all the Chinese take great pride in what they do or make. They have a lot more rituals and meaning behind what they do than we do at home.

As far a Piper goes, she could not be doing better (knock on wood...again)! Yesterday after my post, she was so full of herself. She is now constantly laughing and giggling! She has learned how to day "DADA". That was so awesome and Laurie is jealous!!

Her smile will just make your heart melt and she definitely has daddy wrapped around her finger (and I think she has already figured that out as well). We have noticed that when she throws toys and things like that she tends to do it mostly with her left hand, so maybe she is left handed? Kinda interesting. She slept for 10 straight hours again last night, and is still taking a morning nap (45 minutes or so) when we are out sightseeing and about 2 hours in the afternoon. That is what she and Laurie are doing right now.

Tomorrow Peter is going to take our group out of the city for a ride in the country side. We are kinda looking forward to that for a change of pace with all of the hustle and bustle in the city. I think we will see a lot of farmland and rice pastures mostly. You really feel the population here in the city of Changsha. People, people, people - everywhere.

Peter has picked up a significant amount of our adoption paperwork and has given it to us. Many of our documents had to be notarized here and many were prepared here in Changsha, Hunan Province. We got her birth certificate, immunization record, and certificate of abandonment. It blows my mind to think about how someone could have abandoned Piper, but we are glad they did now! She is so awesome and more than we could have ever imagined.

Well, that is all for now. I did not get a chance to get my massage yesterday, but I am going to do that right now once this post is on the page. I never get them at home, but here at the Huaitian Hotel it only costs 10 U.S. Dollars for an hour massage, so what the heck? To them, 10 U.S. Dollars is a lot of money however.

Hope all of you are doing well. Thanks again for all of the e-mails. Many of my friends at Brenntag Southeast, Advent U.M.C., many of my customers, and friends from college have been sending a lot. Please keep them coming, it is so great to hear from all of you.

Take care, and we will write more (and send more photos) later.

Love,

Rob
(Laurie and Piper too!)