Gotcha Plus Three - The Market and Buddhist Temple

Another day and a little more progression into getting into this little girl's head. Not near as many sad moments for her and the few that she had are very brief. We started with our normal breakfast. For the most part it has taken at least half a day to get her to relax and smile..but we had to smiling and playing by early morning....all good signs. I witnessed something today that I had never seen before. My two year old girl can peel an orange...she bites into it...gets it started and then peeled it. Rob and I sat in awe as we only imagined how baffled both our boys would have been at the idea of peeling an orange?



Molly's eating has also slowed down to a regular pace. I think or at least I hope that she has determined that this whole eating thing is something that occurs quite often with these funny looking people so I may as well pace myself. We are baffled with her hand eye coordination and fine motor skills. There is one word that Rob says describes her..INTENSE! When she is working on a toy or puzzle...she is completely into it and it has been a blast watching her figure out these tasks. I gave her a plastic comb and she played with it for half an hour. We handed her Rob's watch..and that was another hour of dedicated play. Truly Amazing.

After breakfast we headed to the Open Air Market. Now, if you ever want to feel like a rock star - be the only Westerner down at this Open Air Market. We were stared at, gawked at, you name it. Everyone wanted to practice their "hellos" with us. One man walked up and started speaking Chinese but it didn't take long to figure out that he was excited about the results of the latest election and had a few choice words about Bush. Unfortunately I have no idea what they were...but he seemed very excited about Obama.

From the Market we headed to a Buddhist Temple and it was 180 degrees out from what I expected. IT WAS MASSIVE! I had always assumed that a temple was more the size of a large church...but this was like a neighborhood. It was very peaceful and very beautiful. Molly fell asleep while we were at the market, slept through the cab ride, and through the entire Buddhist temple so we dont have a lot of pictures of her from today.....but it sure was nice to see these places.

We headed out for lunch and had our first completely non-Chinese meal. We found an Italian restaurant and it was really good. Back to the hotel to say goodbye to Auntie Mary and Auntie Darla who have to head back to reality and Rob, Molly and I enjoyed some quiet time just walking around the hotel. Bath and bed on the schedule as usual. It was a great day...slower pace...and we really enjoyed our time in the city.

Tomorrow we are back at it. Meeting with a notary and visit to another Living Hope Orphanage for older children who are not adoptable internationally. Another couple we met here visited yesterday and said it was wonderful. The kids seemed very engaged and happy there.

Thanks for keeping up everyone! Two more days in Fuzhou and we are off to Guangzhou for the final leg of this journey!

Keep those prayers coming! We have a 24 hour trip home with a two year old who has never flown before and is starting to become quite active!