This morning Emma met Marty and I in the lobby and we walked to the bank. It is time to get our money exchanged for the Big Day tomorrow. YAY!! We also have confirmed the paperwork and booked our flight to Guangzhou on Friday.
After the bank we decided to do a little shopping. We drove to the mall that is located near the Wal-Mart. Actually, the Wal-Mart is in the basement of the mall. Crazy huh! They have an escalator that is flat for you pull buggies up to the parking lot. It is really funny to watch. We did not purchase anything but did have a good time. We found a Baskin Robbins and introduced Emma to Cookies-n-Cream Icecream. She loved it.
We had have such a good time with Emma. It is sad that she will not be continuing on with us to Guangzhou. We will have a new guide there. Emma surprised us today with a restaurant that is a local one to the area. When she mentioned that she was taking us there we asked if she had taken other families. She said no and that we were her first. This was actually her first time to the restaurant too. She asked us to trust her when ordering our food so we did. We told her to make sure that the meat was cooked and that it involved noodles. To our surprise the food was good. The first dish did look rather odd. It was clear thick noodles of some sort in a dark sauce. I tried it first and it did not taste too bad. The second dish was meat in a dark sauce with slices of onions and Chinese pancakes for you to put the meat in and roll up to eat. This was very good. I had two of them. Marty like this dish as well. The first dish Marty did not like. The third dish was sweet-n-sour pork. It appeared to look just like it is in the states. It was a thicker sauce and a little sweeter. Next, the dumplings and the noodles arrived. I did not eat a dumpling because I was too busy eating the sweet-n-sour pork and the noodles. The noodles were made from scratch and had a wonderful meat sauce on it. It was as if we were eating chicken-n-dumplings but with meat and a meat broth. We all three loved the noodles. I was so proud of Marty and me for trying all the food. We have been so careful since arriving to China. Drinking only bottled water and eating only foods we know are safe. This was a huge step for us and we really enjoyed it.
We then walked back to hotel. I took some pictures of the City and the hotel for you guys. You can see that it appears to be foggy but it is not. There is a thick smog over the city. Taiyuan is a coal mining city and the air is very much polluted. The sun is shining today and you cannot see it.
While at the hotel we invited Emma to join us in the room. She talked to Mom, Amency and Beverly on the computer with us. She is so cute.
Marty and I are now in the room relaxing. We have been preparing the room for Kaegan. We are so excited that we will have him in less than 24 hours.
We have been so blessed on this journey. A few weeks ago Marty and I met another couple thru Ben and Wendy Lee who are also adopting from China. They are Gene and Kristi Ellender. They also live in Bossier. We were actually on the same three flights together to China. It was wonderful to have them with us. Especially knowing that we are traveling for the same reasons. The Ellender's received their daughter today! We are so excited for them and can't wait to meet up with them in Guangzhou this weekend. The have waited over 3 years for this day. Today it is well worth the wait. God Bless them and there new addition.
