Family Photos!

Rachel is getting more and more comfortable with us. She is such a delight. She slept pretty good last night. She went to bed around 8:30 and was up at 5:45. A little better than 5:00!

Today we toured an Embroidery Factory. If you only knew the man hours that are put into one large design. We saw 6 to 8 women working on one design and there was no air conditioning. We were dying walking around, I can't imagine working in the heat like that for 8+ hours a day. We bought Rachel a beautiful Baby Panda Embroidery picture to hang in her room. This will be a nice piece of her heritage hanging in her room. Hunan Province is well known for its embroidery. After the embroidery factory, we visited a Painting Factory. The Chinese people are very artistic and creative. Their work is so beautiful. They are very proud of their abilities.

Last night we did make our way to KFC for dinner. It's a good time to get out and about with others. We walked about 20 minutes to KFC and the walked back. Rachel was so tired on the way back to the hotel and she was falling asleep. It was only about 7:00 and I didn't want her to fall asleep because I was afraid it would mess her up for the rest of the night. I forgot how hard it is to keep a baby awake. I pulled out the gerber bites and that woke her up. She loves those things and she can't get enough of them!

We ended up going to bed by 9:00 last night since we were up at 5:00 AM because of our Spicy Girl! Girl's in Hunan Province are called Spicy Girls! I love that! Anyway, around 10:30 PM we were startled by loud gun-shot sounding noises. I about jumped out of my skin. I think Dave would have slept through it if I hadn't jumped on top of him. LOL! We finally looked out the window and they were shooting fireworks which later I found out was in honor of the dead. The country is in mourning over those lost in the tragic earthquake. I don't know how a country recovers from such tragedy. The other day we were in our room and I heard constant horn beeping. I looked out the window and everything was in a standstill, including traffic and workers were outside just standing there. Again, I wasn't sure what was going on, but found out that they were observing a 3 minute of silence for the earthquake victims. They also suspended any recreational television including programs from other countries for three days. Please continue to pray for this country. So many lives were lost and so many lives will need to be rebuilt.

Jake is having a blast with the kid's in our group. There is a family who has three biological children and two of them are boys, 13 and 10. Jake and the boys quickly became friends. They go swimming several times a day and Jake and the 10 year old, Cody, play cards. On the one floor, they have bowling, ping pong, pool, etc. The boys are definitely keeping busy with one another. Jake loves his sister and his sister loves him. She thinks he quite funny too.

On our floor, there is a playroom for the kids. Rachel absolutely loves the walker. I thought those things were banned! Anyway, she loves the thing and she is like a speed demon in it. There is a spiky ball that she just can't get enough of. I will stand at the other side of the room and she will race at me laughing hysterically to get her hands on the ball.! I love watching her do that! It is so funny.

Tomorrow we are doing more sight seeing. Not sure where we are going. We are supposed to meet in the lobby at 9:00 again. I hope you like the photos. You can obviously see how happy Rachel is. She was truly meant to be a part of our family. We are so in love with her!