Hear, See, Speak No Shopping

We have seen the most amazing assortment of cool boots here. Hannah and I were interested in having a pair, so one day, my dad, Hannah, and I went out on a shopping trip to find some. Note to self: foreign money spends faster than American currency! Along the way, we did some sightseeing. We saw the Bell Tower and the Drum Tower in the center of this, the former imperial city of China. It was so cold outside that we decided to stop along the way for hot drinks to warm us up. We stopped at... guess where?!? Starbucks! On the way out, we decided to sip on our drinks while sitting on a bench outside of Starbucks. Merriella decided to say, "nee how" to a Chinese woman. Thinking that Merriella spoke Chinese she attempted to carry on a conversation with her. My dad rushed to the rescue explaining to the woman that Merriella didn't understand. In a short moment, we had a gathering of over two dozen people who were curious about a number of things including: 4 westerners with a chinese girl; the man with three daughters(!); which region of China Merriella was from; and what brought us to China. The crowd kept getting bigger and before long, people were questioning if I was the mother or if my grandma was. Dad's 10 chinese words were of little use since 5 of them are hello, airplane, thank-you, yes and no. After finding a woman that spoke both English and Chinese, we were able to convey to them why we were in China. Many of them were perplexed. The Chinese are more likely to stare, come very close and ask direct questions than Americans. All in all, it was an amusing thing to see a family of Americans trying to communicate with a woman who only spoke Chinese! What a sight!
Nana had the experience of a lifetime as well, when on the way back to our hotel she attempted to tell a chinese taxi driver who spoke no english how to get around in his home town. Dad also had a conversation in the pool hot tub with a Chinese man who was attempting to give him Chinese speech lessons! With every attempt my dad made to fix his grammatical errors, the man just spoke louder, more dramatically, and further inside dad's personal bubble! That went splendidly! Did you know that a chinese word has 4 different meanings depending on the tonal inflection? One word in particular might be "mother" or "horse"!
Only a few of our many adventures have been recorded thus far, some of them will have to be told in person when we get back home!

Experiencing China, Discovering Xi'an...

Sorry for the late entry and keeping you all waiting on updated news! The past 3 days have been a blur of excitement! Between going shopping for boots, sightseeing, dad warding off souvenir hawkers, visiting Cory’s orphanage, adjusting to having another little one, tasting new foods, meeting amazing Chinese people, and traveling from Xi’an in Shaanxi Province to Guangzhou in Guangdong Province, the adventure continues! Every time we turn a corner, I am amazed to discover that what little we have seen of China is just a glimpse into their daily bustling lives! I have yet to be bored, although Hannah and I are greatly missing our friends and lifestyle back home.

Both the little ones are being the best troopers! They never complain and do whatever they have to in order to make this trip more pleasant. Cory and Merriella are still joined at the hip and one can’t go anywhere without the other. I almost feel as if Merriella has stepped into the age group of Hannah and me because whenever we are with her, I feel like we are the best of friends. She is letting this little boy enter our family so easily and with such minimal jealousy, that one would wonder if she was feeling quite alright. Mommy and Daddy are being shared as equally as is possible between the 5 children, with the 2 youngest being at the forefront of their attention, of course. We realize this is very necessary in order for Cory to adjust properly. Cory on the other hand is very possessive of his mother (very different from our experience with Merriella) and doesn’t appreciate sharing Mom as generously. Colin is still Cory’s little buddy and is eagerly sought after at all times. Our overall experience so far has been entirely positive and we only have positive updates!