Sleepless in Seattle, ahem China.  Never at home do I say, "Oh good, it's 5:00am" but here, I long for it to be 5:00am!  That has become my "ok" time to get out of bed though I have been awake for hours.  

So, Tuesday began at 5:00am.  And it was good.  I am so thankful we have Maryn with us on this trip.  The transition from baby to big sister is going well yet I know she needs assurance she is loved and cherished as much as our new little one.  So, at 5:00am in the morning, it is good to grab her and hold her for a bit before she is ready to pop up out of bed for the day.  After a bit of Chinese morning tv entertainment and playing, I checked on Chapman and found her sleeping peacefully on her tummy with her little thumb placed in her mouth for comfort.  She loves her thumb and though it is so cute, we can already see where orthodontics are going to play into her life later in life.  Bless.

We made our way down to breakfast where Chapman enjoyed her round of scrambled eggs, millet congee, and hashbrowns.  Breakfast of champions for sure!  We offered her regular milk and the face she made was hysterical and let us know that maybe milk is not her thing.  Then it was back to the Civil Affairs office to officially finalize Chapman's adoption.  A few red thumbprints and even more signatures later, we were able to meander our way back to the van through the same construction site as we trumped through yesterday.  It is just one big dusty mess. 

We played for a bit in our room and then decided to take an adventure "across the street" to Walmart. Now, "across the street" is a loose phrase when in China.  It is more like we took an adventure "across a ten lane highway" and lived to tell the story.  Ha.  Ryan describes it best as playing a deadly game of Frogger.  We did well as we navigated our way across the traffic with cars, trucks, little car thingies, bikes, and mopeds all coming towards us from different directions.  When in China....

We really enjoyed the walk....the street foodies, the people watching, the crazy expensive cars, the sounds and even the smells.  And Walmart didn't disappoint though it was the most calm Walmart we have ever been to in China.  And somewhat clean.  Cleaner than home, except for the fish department.  Bleck.  Squid, Eel, Octopus, crabs, lobsters and an assortment of whole fish, eyes included.  And then the chicken.....it just sits out in bins and you use your bare hands to place your raw choice chicken organ in a bag.  In the US, we would find everything wrong with this.  Here, it is just their way, their culture.  We gathered a few needed items and headed to checkout.  Calmly standing in line waiting on the family in front of us, minding our own business and then out of nowhere I feel this push on my back and I knew the person wanted to go by.  So I stepped to the side thinking maybe the person was with the group in front.  NOPE.  He held up a bottle of Coke towards me and smiled, then held up his money to the cashier and proceeded to "cut" the line and make his purchase!  There was the preschool part of me that wanted to shout, "NO CUTTING!" but I refrained.  Again, a culture thing.  Different boundaries.  

Back in the room, the girls and I played for a bit while Ryan made a water run and attempted to find some traditional Shanxi style noodles for dinner.  Bath time was up next so I went in to run the water. It was cold.  Here we are in this fabulous hotel and the water has been less than hot every.single.day.  So I called the front desk - this is the second day we have had to do this - and they sent someone up to "fix" the water.  Two men, a few tools, a few minutes, they tell me it is all good now and say goodbye.  Ok.  I go to run the bath again and, again, it is freezing cold!  Ugh.  So, I turned the sink on to see if that was hot and it was....so, Maryn and I began a little game of pouring hot water from the sink into the tub.  Ryan walks in as we are doing this and looks puzzled.  I told him the story and he looks down and says, "Well, actually, the hot water goes this way" and sure enough he turned the faucet the other way and boom, hot water.  Bless.  Those two men are probably getting good laugh on my behalf.  Bath time did not go well.  Though Chapman tolerated it the first night, she cringed at the sound of the running water and then promptly let us know that taking a bath was not on her list of favorites.  We settled her down and bathed her quickly while Maryn held her fingers in her ears. A little chatting with the children at home and our agency later, we were settled into bed by 8:00pm for the evening, and, once again, Chapman laid herself down and snuggled in tight for the night.