Monday morning for us - Sunday afternoon for you

Sorry there are no new pictures up. Last night we had to pack up our things so they could be taken to the airport and I packed the cord for the camera. We will post pictures tonight from the last few days if we get into Guangzhou and have Sarah in bed at a reasonable time. I think our flight is at 5:30 and it is about an hour and a half flight then getting luggage and a 30 minute drive to the airport. We should have her in bed by 7:30 or 8 if all goes well.

Sarah is really coming out of her shell every day. We are so excited! She says MaMa a lot and Brent really encourages her that that is me. We are working on DaDa too (not as much with me since both Brandon and Hannah said DaDa first - I'm hoping at least Sarah connects MaMa to me first!)

She loves to stand and tries to do it without holding on to us. I think Brent got a few pictures of it yesterday afternoon while we were in the playroom. She is getting brave and we are encouraging it as much as we can. She will be walking before we know it!

She has also started to feed herself a bit more. Janet asked what she eats - everything we give her! She does still take bottles of formula (about 3 or 4 a day) but at dinner and lunch we give her things we are eating as well. We found a little market about 4 blocks from the hotel and picked up some baby cereal - the rice stuff - that we give her usually before we go down to find food for us so her belly is a little full. Then she eats congee which is like a thick rice soup. I need to look up the recipe but it looks easy - lots of water when cooking the rice. It is very bland but the locals usually add other spices and meats to theirs. Sometimes we can get it flavored with beans which I do for protein for her. It is supposed to be soothing on their bellies.

She loves watermelon! She also eats regular rice. They call it fried rice here when they add scrambled egg and bits of ham - not really fried to me since it isn't brown - but still tasty all the same. She likes banana bread and bananas - she ate a whole one at lunch yesterday. We give her bits of non-spicy meat (if we are daring enough to try it ourselves!) They sometimes have the steamed egg at the buffets so we give that to her too. LiPing said that is easy to make as well but he is so hard to understand that I'll have to look that one up. It looks like a quiche but only made of egg, sugar and a bit of water over a double boiler(?). That is the jist of it from what I got from LiPing.

She really will try just about everything. She is also starting to feed herself. Remember before she would pick up the pieces of food and hand it to us to give to her. Now if we aren't watching too closely we will see her put it in her own mouth. If we do we praise her and clap for her. I think in the orphanage they were scolded for that.

I wanted to tell everyone about the beds - think a cement slab with a cotton batting over it. My poor hips and back! I have been sleeping fairly well the last few nights because I'm just so tired. I hear the beds at the White Swan aren't much better. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed.

We haven't done much the last few days - hung out in the hotel playing with the other babies in the playroom. Sarah and Grace seem to get along pretty good - they share fairly well. It is nice to have someone else to hang out with. I think too much of one person can get to you and Brent and I have not spent this much time in a confined space for this long, ever! We have been doing pretty well with it and try to get out as much as possible. We walked to the corner store yesterday and back but the heat was too much. We are both glad for a change of scenery tomorrow.

The next few days are going to be busy - medical exam for Sarah, Consulate appointment among others. I think there is something everyday until we leave. Luckily it isn't all day because she really needs her nap still.

We'll try to post more tonight so when you wake up there is a little something of Sarah.