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It’s Sunday again in China and we have had Nadia for a full week now. We can’t even believe that this wonderful, sweet girl is in our family. She only got up once overnight and I was feeling like a new woman to get a solid amount of sleep in one session again As we were getting ready to join our group on a tour I picked Nadia up to change her and she felt fiery hot. We took her temp and she was 99.9. We immediately gave her some baby Tylenol and she fell asleep. She also seems very congested now and has been sneezing like mommy and daddy. Something really got Mike and I since we got to GZ and we have just been stuffed up and sneezing, but no coughing or other issues.

We of course skipped the tour and hung out around the room. Nadia’s fever was down by the time she woke back up from her morning nap, but she was not as perky as usual. I ran our laundry over to Susan’s Place by the White Swan and also ordered chops while I was there. The guy tried to get me to buy a million other things, but I had already decided that we were going to spread our shopping dollars around the island. They all sell essentially the same stuff, but some shop owners are more friendly than others. I don’t mind the haggling, but I don’t like the pushy salesman stuff.

We ordered lunch in from Danny’s Bagel again and it was great like yesterday. It’s just so convenient to have it delivered and not pay the room service prices. Once Nadia was up from her 3rd nap of the day we decided to head out and wander around the city because she was doing so well. We had a nice stroll and we bought her 4 pairs of the CUTEST shoes in various sizes. Only one fit her right now, but they were such a good deal that we couldn’t resist. Now I understand why everyone talks about the kids shoes in China. WOW. The chops are really cool too and the fact that they hand carve them for you is really neat.

We borrowed a stroller from Susan’s Place and tried it out with Nadia. She was fine unless you stopped moving. She doesn’t like being in a highchair either, so we just hold her at meal times since she is still bonding with us. Tonight Mike got take out from Lucy’s and I had left overs from my lunch and we just came back to the room. We are on the 21st floor and we have great view from out window. We can see all the neon boats that do dinner cruises down the pearl river. This place is lit up like “Chinese Vegas” and from the other side of the hotel you can apparently see a really cool light show at night with Chinese music playing. We can hear the music, but not see the lights. And the White Swan is just baby central. There are people from all over the world here to adopt children of all ages and all needs. I met a guy yesterday and asked him where he was from and he said, “Crazyville.” I said, “No really.” And he said, “Anyone who adopts a 13 year old boy is from crazyville.” Then he started cracking up and you could just see how much he was in love with the boy. It was really cute and an example of the kind of people we have been chatting with. There are also 3 sets of twins here right now which is fun.

Nadia is so sweet and just wants to explore and examine everything you put in front of her. She tries to scoot her way towards stuff or climb over you if she wants something on the other side of you. She really like to roll around and we have been putting her on her tummy so she can get better at the scooting. Her little back and leg muscles are really getting stronger by the day which is awesome to see.

I think some people might be wondering what kind of condition Nadia was in on Gotcha Day. For one thing, she was just blazing hot and sweaty in the Civil Affairs office. Once we were able to change her, she had the worst diaper rash. I nearly started crying it looked so painful. After 2 days with A&D ointment, we had it all cleared up though. She was very skinny and I could see a couple ribs, but not all of them. Now she has a little pooch sticking out and is eating a good amount. We have decided to just keep her on the formula and rice cereal until we get home and then work on some new solid foods. She doesn’t know how to hold her bottle (which I don’t mind since it’s good bonding time, we just don’t want to leave her with her food like they did at the orphanage) and she doesn’t put it together that she can move food like her Gerber Graduates to her mouth. She just opens up and lets us put them in. Then she makes the cutest smacking noises as she tries to figure out how to use her mouth in this new way. She had a lot of heat bumps on her forehead that looked like big bug bites. She had those in various places all over her body in various stages of healing. The worst ones are nearly cleared up now and the ones on her forehead have gone down a lot. A couple Chinese ladies came up to me and pointed to her head and said, “Hot baby, hot baby.” She had several large scratches on her legs and I can only guess those came from the walkers they put them in. She has bald spot on the back of her head which I think must have been where a large boil was on her head. They are very common for babies from her orphanage and we were told that their electricity goes on and off and they can’t keep the babies cool all the time.

We got the photos back from the disposable cameras we sent to the orphanage and she is cute in the photos of course, but a couple photos show one of those boils smack dab in the middle of her head. It is just a small bump now. I cried when we got those photos back. It was heartbreaking to see her in those photos with all the little metal cribs lined up. But I am glad that we have them and will have them for Nadia when she grows older and asks about where she was until we became a family.

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