Sunday, February 4, 2007

Day 4: Nanjing

Good morning! It is 3:30am and I am still not on local time. Yesterday I slept in until 6am and thought I was getting on track but I guess I am just so excited for today that I can't sleep. I'm going to be a new mommy in 6 hours! Oh my goodness! :)

Nanjing is much smaller than Beijing, only 6 million people. We took a tour of the city gate and met some locals. Bryan met a store keeper and his daughter. The gentlemen didn't speak any English but just kept talking... so Bryan smiled and listened. We took a walk along a river and were amazed by some local kids. We were walking towards a girl (about 10yrs) and her grandfather. She looked shy and was leaning into her grandfather. As we approached we said Nee HaOW... Hello in Chinese. She answered "Hello" with a huge smile. She was being encouraged by her grandfather to speak more but she was just too shy. A little bit further we met a little boy (about 8 or 9 yrs). He had a huge smile and said "Hello". Now we realized that these kids want to practice their English. Jodi went closer to him and asked him how he was doing. "I am doing fine." with a big smile. Jodi gave him a big high-5 and complimented him on his English. Our friend Hamid, asked him what his name was... "My name is Jimmy" he said with pride. He was adorable. And of course made me miss all four of my kids!!


At the city gate we met a Bonsai gardener. Some of his trees are more than 100 years old. The city gate is over 600 years old. Nanjing used to be the countries capitol until an emperor (can't remember which one) from the north came into power and moved the capitol to Beijing, North China where he was originally from.
We are overwhelmed with all of this history, but trying to take in as much as possible! Can't wait to get scrapebooking!

One of my favorite things in China is the special sidewalks. Kids we have a summer project! Some sidewalks, especially in gardens, are made with the rocks protruding out of the cement by half an inch. This makes a wonderful food massage when you walk over it with your bare feet. It is great!! We didn't get a picture, but at many parks they have exercise equipment. Rather than paying to go to a gym everyone goes to the park and works out. Not really muscle beach but really cool! There are people of every age exercising.

Okay, I know y'all have been waiting for a picture of the local cuisine. I went to a market place with Nour, Hamid and Sue. For those of who have shopped Trade days on a busy day... that doesn't even compare. It is amazing! Thousands of open shops and thousands of people. I didn't even buy anything... guess I was a little overwhelmed. Conner, I don't like crowds either. Anyway, I was looking for some local candy to buy and what did I find? Duck heads! I just find this very interesting. I really wonder how they taste. Guess I will never know.

Today is the day! Can't wait! We are scheduled to meet Jailyn at 9:30a.m. I pulled out all of her clothes last night. I first went to Nour's room to see all she had brought for Eli and then she came to see what we had for Jailyn. We are hoping that since Eli and Jailyn have been in the same room in the orphange that they will find comfort being together and being able to play together. Guess we'll see! Be ready for anything.

Love y'all! Next post will be of our sweet baby girl! Thank you for traveling with us! We are homesick and it is so nice to get messages from y'all! Our email is not working that great so that is why I haven't emailed people specifically.

Love y'all!!!

2 comments:

Jay said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Valerie said...

Oh my gosh....it's here! I am reading this late Sunday night at midnight...you are probably already holding Jailyn.

Congratulations to you and Bryan and the kids for having a new baby sister.

I miss you.

Love V