A Visit to a Department Store

Yes, we walked her up and down the hall, sung to her, pleaded, cajoled, and finally resigned ourselves to staying up and playing with her. There finally came a point where even she could no longer resist the sandman and, when she was least expecting him and was watching the pass where he usually rides in so she could run from him, he came in another way...sneaked up to her from behind and sprinkled that sleep dust onto her eyes until they fell heavy and she nodded off.

Today was a quieter day. Not as much activity planned by the wonderful Holt folks. Matthew took us by bus to Green Mountain this morning and, after a half hour of exploring the lush green hillsides and picturesque temples and towers, we boarded the bus and came back to the Majestic. While there, Linda purchased some paper Mache red decorated balls that were representative of this city, Nanning (which is Kristina's birth city).

This afternoon, on the spur of the moment, he took us to a department store. Apparently, whether you are in a society that stresses socialism or one that stresses capitalism, there is truly only one "ism" that is underlying all other isms: commercialism. Though many of the names were different (made up of Chinese characters instead of the alphabet I'm familiar with), still the glitz was there. Fancy lettering, well lit, each item, whether it was a shirt, a dress, or a ball point pen, beckoned for you to buy it and take it home.

We were very proud of ourselves because while we were in the department store, Linda noted that Kristina had pooped and her diaper needed to be changed. Right there on the department store floor, we laid out her blue table cloth piece, got out the baby wipes and went to work. In under 45 minutes, we had completely changed the diaper and wiped and sanitized the entire 10 feet circumference of goods around that had gotten splattered.

Actually, we did much better than that but I'm mixing in a story that did happen to one of the new parents (though I don't believe it was in that department store). After visiting the department store, Matthew suggested we walk over to TCBY and have a yogurt ice cream. It was great!

Matthew shared with us a method of getting Kristina to go to sleep that seemed to work. Maybe too good to be true but it sure worked just now and enabled me to sit down and catch up on my writing. If the crib has wheels, roll it back and forth until she falls asleep. It took five minutes and she was out like a light.

Tomorrow, Friday, we are scheduled to go to the orphanage where Kristina spent her early months. We'll be asking them questions about her eating habits, schedules of activities, personality, etc. Then, tomorrow afternoon, after lunch, we go to the airport and fly to Guangzhou to wrap up this whole process from the US point of view.