Quiet Day

A great view of the lake in the Park

Nanchang is home to many varieties of Orchids - this wall tile represents just one of them. They had these tiles all over the park. This is for you Mimi.

Looking up at me from her sling.

This gentleman was painting calligraphy on the ground with water and a sponge on the end of this stick.

Peoples Park

I am so amazed at how well all of these babies are transitioning and settling in with their new families! Sweet little Gracie Lin is very busy today. She has decided that it’s ok to explore the entire room. We are now on ‘little pieces’ watch. She immediately found a coin when she began her exploration. Fortunately, it didn’t make it into her mouth. She has been so busy the last couple of days that it’s hard to get her to sit still for a meal. Since we only have high chairs at breakfast, I try to fill her up as much as possible then.

Jiangxi is known for rice, tea and porcelain. We were fortunate enough to visit some porcelain stores today to purchase the ‘dowry’ for our daughter! J Things like chopsticks and teapots are purchased for girl’s dowry traditionally here. Also on the veil of the bride, they put watermelon seed, peanuts, and two fruits. We have seen and heard lots of fireworks this weekend. Usually they say the fireworks are going off for a wedding. We actually had a wedding party on our floor Friday night and it was very lively. They had a cage out in front of the hotel that looked like a phone both and that was used to set off fireworks inside. Parker LOVED it! Inside the cage makes the sound much more fun.

As a group, we took a walk in a huge city park. There were very peaceful areas, a children’s playground and then a carnival like area. They were even making cotton candy. We have seen lots of men on the streets, playing card games and a game that reminds me of domino’s made from what looks like porcelain pieces. In the park there was a huge stone chess set on the ground. Parks are huge in this city for keeping people active. The government put in outdoor exercise equipment that can be used by kids and adults.

Saturday??

I have photos to upload but it takes forever so I'm leaving it at words tonight; I'll add them later.

What a different day today in Nanchang! What day is it anyway? Tonight the moon is close to being full and we see it from our room. We can see all the way across the city and there isn’t any smog hanging in the air! We can breath freely (most of the time). Out in front of the hotel, there are different light colors that race across the railing of the river bridge and buildings are lit up all over the city. This morning we toured a pavilion that was built in 639 by a Prince who was coming down river for an important dinner – I have not idea what for because I wasn’t good at history and obviously I’m still not. Anyway, he got stuck on the river in this area – it sounded like he hit a sand bar. He met a couple of men who were like self proclaimed gods who helped him make the meeting in an impossible time frame. He built the temple here as a commemoration. It was a beautiful place and something that I counted on seeing in China because of the history I do remember. J

The boys are almost over being celebrities here. They are trying to be sweet when people want a photo with them.

We had another amazing lunch ordered by our hosts. Not only are the meals amazing food but each day we pay about 150 yuan for lunch which is around $23 for the three of us – babies eat free everywhere. We tried passion fruit today, It wasn’t that tasty considering its name. (Not my best photo moment - the little grape like pieces on the plate are the part you eat if you've never had one like me).

After a terrific naptime, the five of us ventured out of the hotel to see what’s around us. John and Parker had scoped it out earlier this week and discovered a market. They took me back there to see. It is a local community market where people were passing thru to pick up the evening meal or just hanging out with their neighbors. It was also very much what expected to see in China and was not disappointed! We saw live chickens and ducks, fresh fruits and vegetables as well as watched a gentleman working on a feather bed. The farmers bring their goods into the markets daily. We have seen a several shops where people have fabric hanging all around the store and they sew custom orders for clothing or bedding. Their sewing machine is right there in the store and they are working on projects. I love seeing these ways of commerce! I want one of these bike they use to transport goods:

Every day we see Gracie Lin come out of her shell a little more. She loves to giggle. She is ticklish on her tummy. She is starting to explore a little bit around the room and check out our mess (with five people in a small space, it’s a mess). She's getting much better with John as well. Tonight, when we were putting little ones down to bed, Carter would say ‘Gwacie’ from across the room and she would say something I didn’t understand. He would then say “Mama’ and she would respond ‘Na-na.’ They went back and fort like this for a couple of minutes. Very sweet!

How do you earn money to live in China

Construction workers - for Papa & Uncle Greg. These men build the bamboo scaffolding for construction/renovations. It is amazing to walk around the city and see this bamboo tied together with what looks like black string and formed into scaffolding. Bamboo has many uses here in China. Not just for feeding Panda's. :) We did find out that the country is thinking of moving some of the Panda bear population to Jiangxi because of the abundance of bamboo.
Taxi/tour boat driver. We had an interesting experience on her boat. She stopped to give someone on another boat a water bottle filled with brownish liquid and not quite full. The other woman tried to give her money but she clearly didn't want it. She threw the money back and then a very strong but obviously fun too argument ensued. It was pretty funny for everyone including the two of them.

Fishing... used to be huge here but has decreased drastically! In Nanchang, there are river fishers who bring their live fish directly to local markets for sale. They are swimming around in shallow tubs.
Jewelry crafters.
Marchants in the market -

This lady peals fruit at Walmart. I have no idea what this is but it looks pretty neat.

This lady is skinning bamboo and selling it in the local street market.

See the person with the with the Chinese hat - he or she is sweeping hundreds of stairs with a bamboo broom. There were people all over this national forest sweeping leaves with bamboo. I think they must sweet day in and day out.

Lu Shan Mountain Trip

Gracie Lin is adjusting amazingly well I think. She continues to surprise me with how well she is doing. She loves her Mama and especially loves her brother Parker. We have had great nights of sleep and just easy days as far as how Gracie and Carter handle the outings.

Today we went to Mt. Lu as they call it here. It was the most beautiful place! It's their vacation spot like Highlands and places like that for us except that there is so much history there! There have been many major political meetings on the mountain. When I say on the mountain, I mean we hiked for 45 minutes to get to the site of their meetings and built into the side of the Mountain is a small building with a courtyard where they met. It is possibly now a tea room but it wasn't open. There was an older gentleman there who just looked wise. He wrote poetry on fans in calligraphy based on meaning to their names. When they read the fan to Parker he just stared with huge eyes (I think he was wondering if we planned this in advance). His fan said that he is very smart and needs to study, he will be very successful if he has ambition. :)

Tea fields - Mt. Lu is a very good climate for .tea growing

Fish Hatchery

Happy family photo!!!

Gracie's cousin Aubrey Mei - well, we've decided they are cousins. These babies were born four days apart in the same city and look like they 'could be' cousins. She is a sweetie!

When our bus stopped, we couldn't even see that there was a house in the middle of this lake because of the clouds that move across the mountain. The clouds moved so quickly across the lake that we saw it vanish and reappear several times during our short walk around.

Floral Path

Every where we go, people want to take pictures with Parker like he is a celebrity!

No subtleties here!

Lone lotus flower

Zen - this is an ancient natural Buddhist temple spot by the lake

There is so much more to this day that I'll add later.

Fun Video

Local Tour Day

Today is Gracie Lin's 13 month birthday! To celebrate, we went on a tour of local markets. That trip started with Walmart! It was quite an experience! The department store items on the second floor were very similar to home and wasn’t a huge deal. The food section on the first floor was so different. I have a few pictures of the grocery sections. The biggest thing is that people stopped us so frequently that we couldn’t get through the store! Everyone wants to touch the boys and then check out Gracie’s sweet little face. They loved the head band today. We have cards to show people that will tell them that we are from the US and are adopting this baby girl. I think that would be very fascinating to most people but with the boys here, they are not that interested in the baby but want to talk about the boys. I think part of it is the blond hair and part that we have two boys.

After Walmart, we had a terrific lunch with an opportunity to try some spicy food. Our host only ordered one real spicy meal for the table; she’s pretty conservative with us in general. We tried 10 different dishes and I don’t think there was one I didn’t like.

Lastly, we went to the local market. I was five stories of clothing, shoes, stores to get custom made items, household items, cosmetics, and accessories. There were times in that market that we would just stand in one spot and be surrounded by people. Particularly at one point, there was a large group of you people that I though might be high school age kids. They stopped to check us out and they all brought out their cell phones to take pictures of the boys. Parker in turn pulled out his camera and took pictures because one of them had a puppy. It was such a fun experience! I forgot to take pictures there because it was all kind of overwhelming.

When we got back to the room, it was around 3 and the little ones had already napped in the market and on the bus. So, it was a rough afternoon with Carter wanting attention and getting into continuous trouble. He is having his moments over not being the baby anymore! Our prayer request is to be able to give him enough attention and enough things to do that will use up his abundance of energy each day!

This trip is amazingly hard with two little ones but it is also equally incredible because of the interaction with all of the kids. Gracie is very attached to Parker which is a blessing. I can pass her off to him to get things done and he’s the only one who has been able to put her down and she doesn’t mind when he puts her on the floor. I’m caught a smile to share!

The pictures are all in backward from my story but I'm too tired to change them now! Good night!

Fabric photos for Nanannette

Random photos

Entering PR China from Hong Kong

Carter trying out Gracie's bed for her before she arrived.

View from breakfast - homes

View from breakfast - gardens, chickens

Looking down from our room