The Truth About Matthew

Okay, so if you remember the report from the orphanage said that Matthew was a quiet boy. Hmmm...today we saw the other side of him (both in excited situations and sometimes when he was upset). Tonight he cried and then SCREAMED when we put him down for bed, which he has not done the last three nights - he always goes to bed and doesn't mind putting himself to sleep. So it is good to see this feisty side of him, because he was almost too laid back.

This morning I was able to lead Rob and Abby to the same "supermarket" that TingTing had taken us too. I don't mean to brag, but I was pretty impressed with myself, because normally I can't find my way out of a paper bag. Unfortunately the reason I took them back there was because our video camera died! I know - we are getting requests for more video and we have no way to do that right now. We ventured to the Orient Department Store. We kind of knew we were out of our league when we walked in and they were all high end name brands. We walked past a purse store called Fendi (I don't know why Rob had heard of this brand before and I have not, but I am not a purse person...) The one purse that we looked at in the window was like 90,000 RMB which is like 13,000 American dollars. This doesn't seem possible, but the exchange rate is 6.8. So when we saw the video cameras and saw that the lowest was $1,000 we decided to wait for Guangzhou where the prices should be cheaper. (And yes we did try Walmart again but no one could speak English to help us and there were not any in the Electronics Department).

Tonight Helen took us to dinner at a Chinese restaurant - this is something we have been too chicken to try by ourselves as the menus are not always in English and we don't always know which restaurants are considered safe to eat at. (i.e. we ate lunch at Papa John's -I think if it was just Rob and I we could be much more adventuresome, but there is always the factor of trying to find something for picky Abby to eat, and we know she loves pizza. She also has discovered she loves the egg over easy at the free breakfast buffet and has one every morning. We ordered four dishes and then shared them (chicken with pinenuts, asparagus, and two different beef dishes) and pumpkin soup for Matthew - he LOVES soup, which will be an awesome way for me to get veggies in him when we get back. He will get excited and kind of bounce in between bites. Some of the items on the menu that we avoided were: duck tongue, ox tail consomme, and stewed sharks fin.

We have learned a lot about the Chinese culture and history from TingTing and Helen. At dinner Helen said that they always watch American movies because they have a happy ending. We asked her about Chinese weddings as there have been two at our hotel, both in the middle of the week. She said that it goes by the lunar calendar and the bride and groom would choose a day based on good luck. Because of Western influence brides often will have a white dress rather than the traditional red. But at some point during the night they will have to wear a red dress.

We are pretty excited that this is our last night in Nanching. We are ready to move on to Guangzhou. It has been a little hard for us to be the only family adopting from Jiangsu province. When we came for Abby, there were 17 families in our group and there were always people to talk with and we could let the babies play together. So we should be able to meet up with the families we met in Beijing - they will all be at the White Swan too. In fact, I do feel a little bad for them as they have been staying there this whole time and then one more week. That is a really long time to be in one place when you are anxious to get home and introduce your baby to everyone. There is one couple here who are going to be first time parents and they are getting twins. I am curious to see how they are getting along. Also in Guangzhou I think they are used to a lot more foreign adoptions - so even though I said we are starting to get used to it, it also starts to get a little old. They do not try to hide their curiousity as they stare and then talk wildly to who they are with (sometimes along with some pointing). They will completely turn their bodies to watch you as you walk past. Today when we were visiting a historical site, Rob who was walking with Matthew in the baby carrier was asked by two different people to have their picture taken with him. I think he felt a little like a celebrity.

A special hello to Mrs. Koniar's class - Thank you for the great note. I will for sure bring Matthew to visit you - it might be a little hard to bring Abby as she will be back in school too. And I can definitely bring some money in to show you, along with some other interesting things that we might find in Guangzhou.

P.S. We come back on the 20th, so we are halfway through our trip and missing all of you like crazy!