house call

[[ my heart hurts for the people affected by the tornado in oklahoma.  so so sad to hear, and pray for God to bring His hope to them. ]]

...and as we were just reminded, holy smokes, can this girl burp!  seriously, last night in the restaurant she burped so stinking loud that it took us a minute to figure out what had happened :)  not.even.kidding.

this will be brief because my poor sister has to retype :) and sorry for the poor quality iphone pictures (i'm assuming they are since i can't view them on the blog :) because of the inability to transfer camera photos to a device that i can email from, the phone is all i got.  at least it is something :)

things continue to go well.  trust me when i say that i've been on the other side of things not going well.  i am very, very grateful for the lack of drama.  i have thanked Him countless times for safety, no sickness, relatively easy transition (on my part anyway, hannah may have a different version :), the company of my kids here, regular texts and emails from home, and prayers of friends.  i am thankful.

today, our guide (lisa) took us to a beautiful park and this time there were trees and flowers!!! who knew?!  hannah rode a carousel and was just lit up with happy!  so it was here that lisa casually mentions that she is concerned maybe hannah has lice.  i say, "oh no, i think it is a dry scalp."  and then i scratch my head and think (sorry!!! i couldn't resist the pun!!!), "am i really that stupid to not have thought of lice one time even though the kids are telling me that hannah has bad 'dandruff'?"  yes, i am that stupid.  lisa arranges for a doctor (awesome guy especially for only charging 200 RMB or $32.50 US dollars!) to come to the hotel and i get my first experience in treating head lice with chinese spirits (a type of alcohol).  so here hannah sits with two large hotel towels covering her head for three hours.  he assured me that it is just leftover dead lice and the rest of us should be fine.  i should feel comforted but i'm left scratching my head (sorry!) over the creepiness of these little varmints.

i'm realizing this is getting long...sorry, deb!  love you :)

remember my cockiness yesterday about how easy this adoption stuff is?  yeah, well i do :)  i didn't seriously think that she wouldn't test the boundaries again so soon, right?  she got her first time out today at the pool.  she refused to hand lydia the room card.  she clearly knew what we wanted and the little poop just shook her head 'no'.  repeatedly.  i had her sit in a lounge chair and said 'bad'.  oh, how i prayed she wouldn't get up and take off to show me who's boss (being boss of a new kiddo in a foreign country isn't very realistic, but let's don't tell her that :).  she stayed and then i told her she could get up.  she ever so cautiously stood up and smiled.  a few minutes later she is bringing me things in an attempt to suck up.  works for me :)  at least she recovers quickly and doesn't hold a grudge.  at least, not yet anyway.

and just one more endearing thing.... she is usually first to have her hands folded ready to pray before meals. be still my heart.  twice, she has said, "mommy!", and shows me her folded hands before i have even started to pray.  melts me into a puddle.

one more day winds down here.  i think there are 48 hours in each day here.  if i could only squeeze all this free time into a time capsule, i'd bottle it and bring it home with me.  love from nanchang.

p.s.  today in the park, we sang "jingle bells" and "edelweiss" with two men practicing their flute and accordion.  their song picks :)  only in china would you experience such odd things that somehow seem completely normal.