Day 7- August 25, 2011

The Buddhist Temple

Where our sweet girl was found at 1 month of age.

Out Cold!!  long day?

Miss Personality

Mommy & me

Today was a rainy day and filled with a couple of tours.  We told the boys that and they were over it before we started.  They have been very patient but “they just wanna have fun!”  Truth is, we are kindof that way also.  Oh well, they sucked it up and went with the flow like we did.  Today we were off to tour a famous Buddist temple here in Shanghai.  On the way, we had a great moment to share what Buddists believe and how it is different than Christians.  We had a good conversation between our family.  We also shared how it is important that we understand where little AvaGrace is coming from and her culture history.  The temple was very elaborate and our guide explained how everything they believe relates back to nature.  AvaGrace was not feeling it today.  She was cranky and didn’t know who she wanted.  I think in the end she wanted mommy the most and today was officially a very good mommy day for her.  Of course, everyone wants mommy when they are not feeling great and that was great to see.  Mommy just has a hard time carrying her everywhere and it can be a bit much for her. 

We went to another silk factory (same as our department stores back home) before lunch.  Here we ended buying mommy a little piece of China (pocketbook) and a set of placemats with matching chopsticks for our future Chinese dinners at home. 

Next we headed off to lunch.  Lunch was great today.  Everything was recognizable and good.  Sweet and sour chicken, soup, rice, fried chicken, fried fish, grilled pork with bamboo shoots and zucchini, and of course watermelon for dessert- that is always the dessert but it is not as sweet as ours back home. 

After lunch we went to the Shanghai museum.  It was located on one side of the People’s square.  There was some amazing bronze, pottery, calligraphy (what they call their writing here), paintings, and furniture in there.  It showcases their long history and how talented these people are.  Some pieces are more that 4000 years old and still preserved very well.  It makes me think about our American history and really how short lived we have been. 

We thought we were done for the day after the tour- and Lord knows we were spent after looking at pottery and such for more than 2 hours- but we had a special treat along the way.  We were headed to the place where our little AvaGrace was found when she was a month old.  The place was at a huge hospital in Shanghai.  We realized just how this mommy cared for her.  We feel like she left her here at this particular hospital because this hospital specializes in dental work according to our guide- and the mommy knew she needed that type of care.  Our guide asked everyone along the way to find the exact place she was found so we could go there with her.  We found it and were able to take some pictures there with her now. That was very special for us and we got a little emotional seeing it and thinking about it.

After that, we headed back home for a little free time, packing up, and PIZZ HUT PIZZA!!!  Mandy was determined to have pizza tonight.  She was one the phone for about 30 minutes and came back in to say it will be delivered in an hour with a Coke!  Were we in paradise or what?  To make it even sweeter, it was cheap too, only 90 RMB which translates to about $15 (large pizza, 1.25 liter of Coke, 2 slices of pie, and delivery by bicycle).  We are headed out tomorrow to pickup our notarized paperwork that we paid for and filled out last Monday and then to the airport to fly to another place called Guangzhou (said as “GuangJoe”).  We will leave there next Wednesday to come back home.