Shamian Christian Church, Guangzhou, China

Shamian Christian Church, Guangzhou, China

Christian churches are now open to the public in China. 70% of the Christian churches have been built in recent years. I read somewhere that approx. 10% of the population of Guangzhou is Christian, a high number for any area in China. The city that Naomi was born and fostered in (Feng Cheng City) only had 1%. Even though Christianity is state governed, many Christians still suffer because of their faith. Christians must register with the government and have many restrictions, especially when it comes to sharing the gospel. Therefore, many choose to attend "house churches". The church on Shamian Island where the White Swan hotel is located was built more for the American guests. That was the Chinese government's plan, God's plan has this building overflowing into the "side room" with video feed with Chinese Christians. We were able to purchase a Chinese/English Bible from the bookstore on the grounds. The store is only open for 1 hour on Sunday and it was packed with people, many were walking out with stacks of bibles. One can only speculate and hope that they were going to share these with friends and family. This church also holds bible studies during the week as well as prayer sessions.

Napping in the pool?

Naomi's personality is really starting to shine. She is getting quite active. I don't think she had much opportunity to really move around while in foster care. In just a week she has figured out how to roll over and is making strides in figuring out how to walk. Today we went to church (I'll write another blog on that experience) then spent about 3 hours in the pool. She actually fell asleep in the pool. It started out like "daddy's club" again but after awhile more mom's joined in. It is so interesting to hear all the different stories from each of the families. We went to Lucy's for dinner again. The buffet in the hotel is about $45/person which is really ridiculous. We can eat at Lucy's for under $10 for both of us. After dinner we did some shopping and met another Christian shop owner. Mike noticed his bible on his desk and struck up a conversation with him. His name is Jordan and he wrote Naomi's name in chinese calligraphy for us as a keepsake. We stopped at the 7 eleven on the way back to the hotel and got some icecream bars. I'm sure it was another 1st for Naomi. She really enjoyed it. So far we haven't found much she doesn't like. Tomorrow the plan is to hit the electronics market.

Swim, Swam, Swum

Naomi met a new friend, Stephanie, at the pool today. Stephanie has to get therapy on her right arm. She cannot extend it due to an injury during birth. Her parents said that it will probably be overcome with therapy.
Naomi gives daddy a kiss and flashes one of her fantastic smiles.

Moon cakes and more

Ahhh, it is actually very refreshing to be in GZ. The hotel is much busier but the area around the hotel is much more laid back. We are on an island so to speak but it seems more like a peninsula. I would compare the lifestyle somewhat to Mackinac Island (minus the horse poop), but Asian style. Peter says it is too expensive for most natives to live here. They get many Chinese here on vacation as well as adoptive families. You only see taxis, limos or high end vehicles here. They have tennis clubs and fancy restaurants down the streets. There are "squares" inside the neighborhood blocks where they play badminton and hacky sack. The buffet is much better here at the White Swan hotel. They actually have a chef from Louisiana working here. So the french toast is really french toast. They even had waffles today. I didn't see any duck or chicken feet, but it was breakfast! We had our medical appointment for Naomi (which she passed with flying colors) and had her photos for her visa done today. Then we took a taxi into GZ and did a supermarket trip. We were going to do the electronics market too but we spent so much time marveling over the delicacies available that it was time for Naomi's nap. We'll make another trip this week and check that out. After her nap we ventured out to the shops around the hotel and visited our new China friend, Judy, that we met last week when we were here. She invited us to her church (she's a Christian of 3 yrs) here and we are going to go tomorrow. She owns a shop off the main street so we did some shopping there. She gave us some good deals. We hit the pool after working up a sweat (nothing in comparison to Nanchang though). Naomi loved the pool and made some new friends. The swimsuit Danna Taylor gave us fit her perfectly. It seemed like there was a "daddy's club" meeting in the kiddie pool. It was great to hear all the different adoption stories. Some of the stories were sad but all had happy endings. There were quite a few older/special needs children. A few cleft palettes, one had burn scars on her arms and another had something with her arm that it wouldn't extend. All are fixable it seems. Most of them were 2 or older, most of the parents started out like us and switched their dossier to accepting a special needs baby because they were tired of the wait. It looks like it only speeds the process up about 6 months. Many of them used The Holt International agency that is supported by many of the Christian artists we play on Smile FM. I have heard many praises for that organization from the families that have used them. We have not met anyone who has used the same agency as we did.
We don't have any more appointments until Wed. & Thurs. so I'm sure we'll find some trouble to get into the next couple of days.
Today starts the Mid-Autumn Festival aka Moon Festival to celebrate the abundance of the summer harvest and tradition is to eat moon cakes under the moon. They have moon cakes for sale here and we are hoping to partake in this tradition sometime this week. I'll let you know how that all works out. As long as it involves eating cake and not some kind of animal feet I'm up for it.

Goodbye Nanchang!

We caved. We ate at the buffet again last night. Peter wasn't feeling well (allergies acting up) and we thought we'd have mercy on him since we had to rely on him to get us there. We WILL be eating at Lucy's in Guangzhou tonight though! We met some other couples here with their new baby's. They will be joining us in GZ tomorrow. It turns out that they did have Pizza Hut the other night, evidently the cheese on the pizza is very different, someone suggested it might be goat cheese. Frankly, I don't wanna know what it is. Naomi is doing much better today. We padded up the "death bed" with towels so she couldn't get her head stuck in between the rails. Not a peep all night. She is a big fan of animal crackers and we can bribe lots of smiles out of her with them. She has been a big hugger from the first day but didn't have a clue what a kiss is but now she is giving kisses out. I think she is going to be the cure to my IT deficiencies as she has quite an interest in anything electronic. The remote and the ipod are her current favorites. Next week we have her medical examination and then we get her visa. After that we can come home. We got a copy of the newspaper posting her abandonment. It was so sad. It was a full page, probably about 120 adds for babies that had been abandoned. We asked Peter if that was an everyday occurence to have that many or if they only published it monthly or weekly. His response was kind of wishy washy. He said they publish them as they are needed. The paper we were looking at was only for this province. It is so saddening. We also got a notarized report of her abandonment. She was left at the hospital in Feng Cheng City with a note saying she was born the day before. She was taken to a foster home that day and that's where she was until we got here. I'm sure they did the best they could to take care of her. She had extremely dry skin, little bug bites all over her and heat rash when we got her. I could tell the foster family gave her lots of love though and that's the most important thing. She has had a fan club in the dining room for every meal. There are a few of the waiters that have really taken a liking to her. At first I thought they just did it to all the babies but after watching them a few times I realized it was just her they fawned over. I know I sound a little prejudice but that's really how it is, really! She's a celebrity here.

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