Saturday Update - from Rob!

Happy Saturday to all of you. 3:00 p.m. here.

The weather today has finally changed gears. It is rainy and quite cool outside, it feel like 50-55 degrees here in Changsha today. A very nice change of pace, I am tired of sweating! That will not be happening today.

Laurie does not feel 100% today, but she is not too sick. Her stomach is a little queasy, I think all of the Chinese food has taken a toll on her normal Chick-Fil-A diet! She stayed in the room and rested this morning and is already feeling better. Our guide Peter took our group on a ride out into the country side today. It was a little sad to see how so many of the people here live. We really did not get to see a lot because it was raining and I was with Piper by myslef. She fell asleep on the bus, and so I just leaned the seat back and let her take her 45 minute morning cat nap on my chest. We are so fortunate where we live. The farmers out in the country are all very poor and work very hard. We saw a lot of rice fields and poor housing mostly.

Piper slept 10.5 hours last night, so she is still scoring A+ in that category. She will occasionally make a small squeal in her sleep for 2-3 seconds, but I think she is just dreaming. She is an awesome sleeper. She also loves to eat and we have introduced her to a lot of new foods. She loves bananas now, so she is getting a small banana for her 4:00 snack. She eating schedule has been:

6:30 a.m. Bottle of formula
8:00 a.m. Breakfast
10:00 a.m. Snack of a few cheerios
12:00 p.m. Lunch
4:00 p.m. Snack of fruit or jar of baby food
6:15 p.m. Dinner
7:45 p.m. Small bottle of formula

The birthday party was a lot of fun as you read on the last post. She loved the cake and got 4 presents from friends in our group as well as 3 more from mom and dad! It was a special and very memorable birthday for sure. We will always cherish the memories of spending her first birthday with her in China, her birth country. Hopefully one day she will really enjoy seeing the photos, video, and stories about her first birthday.

She continues to blossom more and more every day. She has become quite the little entertainer now. She thinks it is great when we laugh so when she does something funny and we laugh, she keeps doing it over and over. She is already picking up on sign language. My neice Sophie was a master of sign language, and Piper has learned the sign for milk pretty good. She is smiling and laughing all the time. We are getting a lot of compliments from our group members on her personality. We are so proud of her and could not be any happier. There is no doubt that God chose her to be our child, and for us to be her parents.

She is also very flexible we have noticed. She puts her legs out in front and puts her head on the ground. Then she will grab her foot and pull her leg up right next to her head (so that her foot is right next to her head and her leg is straight). I think gymnastics are definitely in the future for this kiddo.

The hotel has loaned us a stroller, and she loves to go for a ride. It seems to sooth her and she has a lot to look at I suppose. Yesterday we went for a ride in the stroller through downtown (and managed to avoid all the crazy drivers). We went to a local department store and bought her one more outfit to get us through the trip. Laurie has been washing out most of her stuff here in our hotel room and we have been hanging it up to dry. Laurie has done more domestic type work here in China than she has at home in her life!! She has done a great job washing bottles and nipples also. She is a great mom, and Piper loves her a lot. Our guide Peter has taken the adult laundry for us and had it cleaned twice now. He is an awesome guide!

We are supposed to get Piper's passport either tonight or on Sunday. Our guide Peter will be picking them up for us. She is still a citizen of China and will travel as her Chinese name home on her passport, visa, and airline ticket. Once she is home in the USA she will be a citizen of the USA. Normally in China when you apply for a passport in your home province it takes 3 weeks to get one. With this adoption, they get them processed in 5 days. This is the main reason we had to stay here in Changsha for 1 week.

We leave here Monday morning to fly to Guangzhou. Our flight leaves at 11:10 a.m. I believe. It will only be a one hour flight. Guangzhou is on the very southeastern tip of China. It is in the Guangdong Province, and this is where the United States Consulate is where we will get Piper's visa. We will be at the Consulate on Tuesday for our interview and visa appt. There is also a medical exam for her scheduled in Guangzhou which is requried for her to leave China and come to the USA.

We cannot thank all of you enough for all of the e-mails you have been sending. We would love to respond to them all, but there is not enough time. It is so nice to log on everyday and read them. We have probably gotten over 125 and we are grateful.

We are still really enjoying China. The hotel is so nice and the staff here bend over backwards for you. Oh, by the way, my massage yesterday was awesome! Definitely worth the $12 U.S. Dollars it cost for 1 hour here at the hotel spa. Peter ordered a special lunch for us today which was club sandwiches and french fries. We looked like scavengers eating those sandwiches as a group!

Well that is all for now.

Our love to all of you back home. We are looking forward to coming home and showing off our little angel!

Rob
(Laurie and Piper too)