Saturday-Sunday, May 16-17, 2009

Sorry for not posting yesterday. On Saturday we walked to the Pearl market through Pedestrian Street. Unfortunately I forgot my camera and Lily has learned how to delete the pictures off the other camera so we have no pictures. I hope to go there again before I leave to get pictures because it was pretty amazing. First we walked through the Herb Market. There are rows of vendors selling all types of dried things to make into Chinese herbal remedies. Our guide said that many people still use ancient Chinese remedies to treat things but the younger generation is starting to prefer Western Medicine. There were more things than you can imagine. We saw dried lizards, sea horses, snakes, deer legs and of course actual herbs. Next we walked through the pet market. Lily loved this part so much. She loved the fish, turtles and puppies. She gestured to us that she wanted a puppy, they were so cute. We had Elvin explain to her that we cannot buy a puppy and take it home to America and that all these animals are available at home. I have a feeling we will be making a trip to the pet store soon. She will fit right in. We have many pets in our home now. Lastly we walked down Pedestrian Street to the Pearl market. Pedestrian Street was very cool. It was very crowded because it was Saturday but we managed to stay together. There are many shops and all the young, trendy Chinese were out shopping and hanging out. At the Pearl market we looked at some Pearls for Lily. It is customary for adoptive parents to buy a string of pearls for their daughter here to give to her on her wedding day. We took down information and will go back to get them before we leave. I have never seen so many pearls in my life and the prices are quite good.

In the afternoon I had to do Consulate paperwork so John took Lily to the pool with our Oklahoman Pals. I was hoping Lily would venture out of the shallow area with the other girls but John said she didn’t. We then went to eat traditional Chinese dinner and when we got back we went to the hotel arcade. Lily had fun and blew through about 30 Yuan coins while there. She loved playing air hockey and a little game where you catch the moving balls and put them in a basket.

On Sunday we went to the zoo. I was not sure what to expect and almost skipped the trip because we have a great zoo in our hometown. We did end up going and it was pretty good. They had a wide variety of animals, we got to see a panda and they had a lot of monkeys.

Lily is still doing well especially when we are alone with her. She is very funny and likes to play. She likes to get me in on playing jokes on John and she just laughs and laughs and says things in Chinese we don’t know. We have had to discipline her a few times for unacceptable behavior but she completely understands when she has crossed the line and she stops. She LOVES to go shopping, today we went to get some more gifts for home and she was picking things out for her brothers. It was very cute. It is so hard not to buy things because the prices are so good. We will probably have to buy another suitcase to get everything home. We are very happy that she is starting to say some English words and can say her brother’s names. We are having some trouble with her pushing us away in public. It mostly occurs when we are with our travel group. She does much better when it is just us so we are trying to spend quality amount of time alone with her before we head home.

We truly feel blessed to have her and everyday it becomes more evident how perfect she is for our family. We know God handpicked this special little girl just for us. We are having so much fun with her and love her so much!