Wednesday in Nanchang

Each day we get to see more and more of little Grace's
personality. She continues to be
patient, pensive, and she is very, very skittish around anyone but Bret and me,
but she also has started to smile outside of our hotel room, playing with us in
public. She was all smiles today, and we
get more and more excited as we see our little daughter blossom into a vibrant,
playful and funny 13 month old girl.

She still gets plenty of comments while we are out, even
pictures taken by strangers. Little Miss
Wei Wei (her nickname, and it's so cute that we'll be keeping it forever) has
two dimples, just like Grant, and we were told today that dimples are saved for
the rarest of beauties in China. I don't know about all that (don't get me
wrong, I think she's pretty hot stuff), but I just know that those dimples were
put there to make sure that she could easily sway her Daddy. She just has to flash them, and he'll give
in… in fact, he already does. She
actually preferred me at times today, but let's be clear: she is Daddy's
girl. He's the only one who can get her
to sleep, and he's the only one she really snuggles with when tired. So, combine all that business with the
dimples, and Daddy is in trouble.

Grace is pretty mobile, and I'm sure some time with Grant will
lead to her walking soon. She rolls
over, sits up, crawls and pulls herself up to standing. She's very patient and content, so she
doesn't feel the need to move often, but she can move if she chooses. She's pretty destructive with her toys, her
favorite toy being an empty Pringles can. She likes to bang it, crash it, or throw it. Grant's going to think she's just about the
greatest thing ever! She looks like a
pretty girl and plays like a crazy boy!

So, today we took our crazy girl and headed out as a group
to the Tengwang Pavilion (pictures of the gardens above; I'm too lazy to rotate
the picture of the actual pavillion), a tall pagoda structure with origins dating
back to 627. It was beautiful, and there
was a short show at the top of the pavilion that included dancing and
singing. I'm sure it was great, but I
was so fixated on how hot I was that I couldn't even concentrate. I have never been so hot. Ever. Bret
and I are resolved to wear or to carry Grace on this trip, all part of the
bonding process. She get's so sweaty, so
when you combine her little body heat plus the hundred degrees (plus 100
percent humidity) outside, it makes for a sweaty, sweaty morning. We had hoped that Grace would take her nap
in the Ergo carrier, but I think she was too hot to get comfortable.

After the pavilion, we had lunch with most of our group. Again, thanks to our guide, it was a fabulous
lunch. Grace ate everything again (she
never actually stops eating… we just kind of quit feeding her). She ate broccoli, tofu, steamed eggs. But, tonight, Grace had a completely new
experience: her first McDonald's happy meal. She fisted French fries in each hand; it was a real winner. Our guide had McDonald's deliver the food,
and while I thought that I would never succumb to such food while here in China, I gave
in to Bret's whimpering. I think I'm
having an allergic reaction to the MSG, as after each meal out with our group,
I develop a mind-splitting headache, so actually, I was a tad relieved to not
be eating Chinese food again.

Tomorrow, there is a scheduled tour to a countryside
village, and Bret and I are still unsure about whether we'll be going. I have this terrible headache; Grace would
probably miss her morning nap (again), and we did see about 12 hours of
countryside on our train trip.

On Friday, we'll get Grace's Chinese passport, a document,
by the way, that is good for about 9 days, and we fly out of Nanchang for Guangzhou on Saturday morning, where we'll
deal with trying to get Grace's U.S. visa.

Again, I have tons of thoughts for those of you adopting
from Nanchang (or adopting in general), but I am
going to finish up our time in Nanchang before posting that chapter.