Day 5=a day of firsts

Well, it’s not as though this whole trip isn’t full of firsts, but there were a couple of pretty significant and cool firsts today. There wasn’t a thing on our schedule, so we got to sleep in a little longer today. Our bodies are getting used to the time change now that we’ve been here a week. After the morning skype with the kids, we hit the breakfast buffet pretty hard. We’ve decided to try to save a little cash by eating a late breakfast and an early dinner whenever possible.

Skype is turning out to be a very cool way for us to stay in touch with some of you back there at home. Kim’s been going through a little withdrawal—she and Erin usually talk every day by phone, and Skype has bridged that gap. While Kim was chatting with Erin, Annabelle and I worked on a puzzle. A little while later, Kim and Annabelle ventured out into the Guangzhou drizzle with the Roux women to brave a little un-guided shopping.

Kim has been making a list of items that we want to buy to present to Annabelle on the anniversary of her adoption, one little gift from her homeland each year. We think that’ll be a sweet reminder of how very much we wanted to adopt our little Annabelle.

After their successful shopping run, we popped Mulan back into the computer and all snuggled on the bed. Annabelle isn’t very touchy/affectionate, but she’s warming up to us. It’s tough for me to hold back; I want to snuggle her, but I don’t want to overwhelm her.

We ate dinner downstairs at the Chinese restaurant in the hotel with the Roux fam. If you want to check out their blog, you can click here. Annabelle and Lauren are becoming good friends, even if they can’t talk to each other. It’s such a blessing to have the Roux fam with us every step of the way. They’re a super neat family. David and Stephanie are on staff with Keynote, which is the music/video arm of Campus Crusade. They live in Indianapolis, and know Roger Hershey.

Following another quick trip to McD’s for some soft-serve, Annabelle got her bath, then proceeded to kick our tails in another rousing game of Trouble. She’s so sweet…she only sends us back to the start if it’s impossible to move anywhere else! She’s a little more likely to bounce me than Mommy, but I can handle it!

We spent a few minutes looking at the pictures Annabelle took today. That was fun. Annabelle took a lot of pictures of Kim skyping with Erin, me working on the puzzle, and of the pictures in her albums.

Oh yeah, the firsts…One of the firsts worth mentioning: Annabelle knew the kids by name as we flipped through their pictures! We got to say good morning/good night to Sadie before Kim and Annabelle jumped into bed.

That’s when the other significant first happened. We’ve been saying “Wa eye nee” which means “I love you” in Cantonese. Tonight Annabelle said “I love you” in English to Kim!

Now that, my friends, is a great way to end the day!