Day 6- Nanning

I have no idea where to begin!!! This city is so beautiful but I feel like I'm walking around soaked all day. I cannot believe the humidity. It is so tropical here, more than Hawaii.

Our day started out with Tao Tao (Channing) walking up at 6am. All she did was get out of our bed, went and put her shoes on then jumped into the other bed. We slept for another hour then she was up. She woke up happy, which was good. But about a hour later she had a meltdown, which lasted A LONG TIME!!! Today was Adoption Day which meant we needed to go back to the Civil Affairs office to finalize the adoption. I had 2 interviews with a kid screaming....not fun!! But the Government Officials are great.....they just asked me to be patient with her and she will come around. I love the one question they asked "are you satisfied with this child"....too funny!!!
So Channing is officially my daughter now!!!!

After we were done there we went to Walmart so we could by Channing some new shoes and clothes. She wants nothing to do with the ones I brought so I thought maybe if she picked them out she would wear them. We first went to the shoe department and she picked out some PINK ones, then we went over to the clothes department and she picked out ALL PINK and of course they had to have shiny things or lace on them. This child is a PINK girl and a girly girl!!!!

We went to Pizza Hut for lunch with our guide David. He is wonderful with Channing. When we are with David, Channing wants to be with him. He will make his hands full so he cant carry her...he tells her to be with Mama and to come to me. Channing wants to be around Chinese people, which is understandable. She ate her pizza like a champ. She is so funny. She ate with a fork and knife, cut her pizza and ate with the best table manners. She didnt spill a drop and ate every crumb.

We joined a family from the US at the pool this afternoon. Channing only wanted her pants off and didnt want to put her bathing suit all the way on. So we went down to the pool. The girls were all swimming and Channing watched from her stroller for about 10 minutes. We got Kaileigh (who is 10 & Chinese) to come and take her out. Channing let her take her out, put her swimsuit all the way on and took her into the pool. She had a blast.....until it was time to come back to the room. Then another melt down came. What a temper tantrum. She was stomping her feet, kicking the wall......I just let her be and soon she stopped. She grabbed her bag of hair pretties, sat infront of the mirror and did her hair. She put ponies in, barrettes and would look at herself at different angles.....I couldnt believe it!!

We went again for another big walk.......she loves to be outside and now loves her stroller. I asked her if she wanted supper and she said NO. So I took her to the restaurant and got the server to ask her in Chinese what she wanted to eat. So Channing told her noodle and a pear. I had them deliver room service to the room. She ate some.....both with a fork and chopsticks. The ladies in the restaurant are wonderful. They come and talk to Channing and can calm her down, they can get her to eat and they also translate for me. Channing still says lots that she wants to go home and to school. She will talk to me really fast in Chinese and say "Mama". I had a good talk with Yulin my agency director tonight for about 1 hour on the phone and she says Channing is doing just fine and that all her behavior issues is normal.....heck it has only been 1 day. She even talked to Channing on the phone for about 5 minutes too.......I love hearing Channing talk.

Sooo....we are slowly making progress. At least Channing will sneak out a smile every now and then. She HATES coming into the hotel, so we will need to do something about that. My camera sucks here. The humidity is so bad, you can see what it does to pictures outside.
Hope everyone is well......and thanks for all the support!!!!

PRIVATE MESSAGE FOR HUNTER: You are going to have so much fun with Channing. She is so funny!!! She calls Papa "Gong Gong" and Grandma "PoPo"....she really like Gong Gong too!!!
She may be very shy at first since she doesnt like strangers and gets scared. I also heard she doesnt like animals today and especially doesnt like dogs, but I dont believe it....so we will see what she does when she sees Saige. Anyways.....I miss you and Brogan!!! See you next week!!!