Grieving

Lots of tears today. Poor little Quinn has been crying on and off all day long. We had to go back to the Civil Affairs office where we got her, so we could sign paperwork and be interviewed by Chinese officials. As soon as we walked into the office, she started crying and screaming her eyes out. I don't if she thought we were going to abandon her or not. As soon as we left the building though, she stopped crying. It was amazing. We have a wonderful guide here in China through FTIA. Her name is Helen. She is the best. She talks to Quinn in Chinese when our little girl is upset. She has taught us so much about Chinese culture. Did you know in China the school children go to school at 8:00, come home at lunch, eat and take a nap and then go back to school until around 5:00? Older children go until about 9:00 at night. There is a school right next door to us. In fact our hotel room looks right into a classroom. So it's fun to watch them have their lessons throughout the day. The school is a three-story schoolhouse. It was a converted embassy building.

Next we went to the Carrafour, a huge grocery store. It was really neat and very, very busy!! You could buy anything there!! When you went to another floor you had to ride an escalator and you took your shopping cart on it. I thought it was interesting that in China the meat is piled in bins. It's not in packaging, it's just piled up and you go to the pork bin for example, and dig through the pile until you find the cut you want. They didn't wear plastic gloves or anything. I think we'll go back this week and I'll make a video tour of it, so you all at home can see. It was soooo cool!! I've included some pictures from our day. Alex bought blueberry potato chips. Donovan bought mango and blueberry Pocky sticks. They had corn juice!! GROSS! We bought mint-flavored sprite. It was disgusting. It was like toothpaste water with fizz. We went to the pharmacy and got some herbal tea for Quinn. She's backed up. It makes for a grouchy Quinn.

Hope you all are doing well. Thank you for all the of nice emails. It makes our day!!

MK- How is school? I miss you very much!! I love you!!