The "P" Pod: We can see the sky!

We made it to Guangzhou with out incident. Thankfully, we had an empty seat next to us on the plane, so Micah could roll around and play. She took the flight like a champ! Still not looking forward to 13 hours on a plan to come home, though... But at least HOME is on the other side of that flight. YIPPEEE!

Guangzhou is a huge improvement from Jinan. First of all, we can see the sky, sun, and clouds. I don't think I realized how oppressive the pollution really was until we saw blue skies. The Garden Hotel is beautiful and the city feels pretty western. We have all sorts of restaurants within walking distance, and today we went to the zoo.

Micah has ups and downs, but she is more consistently up for sure. She still wants me to hold and play with her the lion's share of the time, but sometimes she will let Reid pick her up without a battle. If she does battle, she usually calms down after about 30 seconds. We try not to push her limits or exasperate her, but sometimes, mom just needs a break. Like yesterday.

We were at the medical examiner's office for 2 hours with 100+ other adoptive families all crammed in a noisy space with no AC. Micah was having a meltdown where she didn't want up or down and there was nothing I could do to make her (or myself) happy! Of course (I felt like) everyone was staring at me. Thankfully, this was an adoption friendly crowd, so I wasn't overly embarrassed. At lunch after that, she had another full on melt down in an all Chinese crowd and they ALL WERE staring at us. The Chinese people don't let their kids melt down. Because of the one child policy, they do everything they can to make their children happy. If she starts screaming because we won't let her play with a knife or throw food on the floor, the Chinese people think we have something seriously wrong going on at our table. Strangers will even come up and say, "Whass wong wit da baby?" It is pretty stressful parenting under a microscope. Micah is still suffering a pretty hefty sense of loss, so she is going to be more sensitive, whiny, and tearful than the average child. We are not beating her, pinching her, or purposefully making her sad. Try explaining that in Chinese!

Today started out pretty rough. Our guide was not picking us up until 10 to leave for the zoo, and Micah did not want to be in the room any more. She would pull my arm toward the door and scream and cry. We told her we loved her, gave her some books and toys, but this did not fly. All she wanted to do was sit on the bed and scream at us. So, we just let her have at it while we just sat in the room with her.

After a while, Reid sat the screaming child next to him (which is never her favorite thing) and started reading some of the books that we brought her. After about 10 minutes, she finally calmed down and started listening to the stories and mimicking animal noises Reid was making. The rest of the day so far has been WONDERFUL! She let Reid hold her tons at the zoo and never fussed when he pushed her stroller. We found a Mexican food restaurant for lunch and made it through without one screeching whine. When we got home, Micah went down for a nap without a battle. It almost felt like what we would think of as a "normal" day! How is that for a sabbath blessing!? Thank you guys for caring for us and praying for us. It really is getting better and better everyday. I know she sounds like a handful, and she is. But she is also a delight to be around. She can be completely adorable! Her little high-pitched raspy voice is so cute and when she wrinkles up her little nose and scrunches her eyes to smile, it makes your heart melt. She is learning a lot and trying very hard to hop on the Porter program, bless her little heart. We can't wait for you to meet her!