Exploring Shamian Island

Today was another pretty low key day for us here in China. The only thing adoption related that we had to do was meet our guide at 2:45pm for an appointment to fill out some paperwork regarding her Chinese visa at a government office downtown. The traffic was pretty crowded coming home from that appointment so we did not get back to our hotel until about 5pm. For a couple of hours this morning we walked around Shamian Island. It was a pretty warm (80oF) and slightly humid day so it felt good to soak in the warmth that we won't be experiencing for a long time once we return home! The Island is really beautiful and peaceful compared to the busy city streets surrounding it. Cute statues scattered around, pretty landscaping, lots of shops that cater to adoptive families buying souveniors, and lots of people to watch. Chun Le hung out in the baby bjorn for most of our exploring and this time we turned her to face away from me and she was comfortable with that and enjoyed the view it seemed. We stopped at one local shop where the owner showed her how to play one of those toy "Chinese drums". She watched him carefully and tried to do it herself and was not completely successful but she really enjoyed holding that toy so we bought it for her. When we got back to the hotel room later she continued to work at it and was able to figure it out eventually. Chun Le just studies everything around her and learns by imitating and works at something until she gets it! The low key nature of today gave us lots of bonding time and we are making more fun observations about Chun Le's temperment/personality:

she definitely goes to her more quiet/stoic mode when we are out and in more crowded areas and holds on to us tightly and does not give as much eye contact, she does not like having dirty or sticky hands..she reaches out to get them wiped immediately after picking up something like a banana, she brushes crumbs off her tray at breakfast to keep that space clean also (is it possible she inherited Jill's "clean gene"?), and she really enjoys being given the chance to do things herself like turning off the lights when we leave or hitting the elevator buttons, etc. She had a sad night as we got ready to put her to bed. She was doing the crying that is really more like a sad moaning with not too many tears similar to what she did for a short time her first night with us. Tonight it lasted a bit longer and while she cried she just sat on my lap but would not lean back and rest and would not lean up on my shoulder and cuddle as I rocked her like she did the other nights. This lasted for about 15 minutes and made me cry too. It seemed like it was one of those times where she just needed to grieve all the losses that have happened to her in the past couple of days. When the crying stopped she was able to lean back on me and fall asleep as usual, but it was a sad night for her (and us). From what we have read in preparation for her adoption, this is all very normal, but it is hard to watch her grieve and not be able to do anything that will "fix it" immediately. One of those many hard things about parenting that have to be entrusted to our Heavenly Father who knows and loves her even more than we do.