Making Progress

Noelle is still a sad little girl, but she seems like maybe she’s starting to turn the corner. Yesterday we were able to go visit her orphanage and I’m so glad! It was good for us to see where she has lived for most of her life so far. We were able to see her bedroom and crib and look into some of the classrooms. One little boy in our travel group had the crib right next to Noelle and they were also in a class together. His parents brought a cake for him and his classmates to eat, which was so sweet of them. When we got to the orphanage Noelle did not want to be put down, but she had no problem going and sitting at the little table when they started serving the cake! She’s my kind of girl!! Many of the nannies and Half The Sky workers said “hi” to Noelle and some even held her, but she was happy to come back to me, so I think that’s a good sign. After visiting the orphanage we went to the finding spot of each child in the group. Noelle was actually found by the gate of the orphanage so we were able to take pictures of the area before we left. Our guide told us that they have security cameras right by the gate, so she was most likely left in a box a little further down the road where she would still be found. After leaving the orphanage there were still 4 other children in our travel group that needed to see their finding spots, so we got a nice driving tour of the city. Guangzhou is huge! I believe it’s the third largest city in China and it seemed like we drove and drove and never saw the end of it. It was fun to see a lot of different sights. When we got back to the hotel we rested awhile and then went out for a little shopping. There’s a nice grocery store down the street that we’ve visited almost every day. It also has a department store and we decided to go get Noelle a toy last night. Some little boys at the orphanage were playing with an electronic toy that she seemed interested in so we figured she might like something that made noise. We got her a toy cell phone that says the numbers in Chinese and plays a lot of Chinese and American songs. She started pushing the buttons so I think she likes it. This might not sound like a big deal, but she’s shown absolutely no interest in playing since we got her, so it made us happy. The other thing we bought was sushi. They sell really yummy sushi for cheap. I’ve been eating it almost every day and I’ve found out that Noelle likes it too. Today we went to the Chen Family Academy. It was built between 1888 and 1894 for offspring of the Chen family to go when they were studying for exams and other things. There was some interesting artwork there and they had some cool gift shops where were able to get the girls some nice souvenirs for when they’re older. Now we are back at the hotel and Noelle is taking her nap. She seems to be happier today. She still cries when daddy holds her, but she seemed to enjoy being out and about in her stroller. She was playing with her shoes and she gave out a few small smiles. She does this thing where she rolls her eyes to the side in a flirtatious kind of way. It is just adorable!! Tomorrow we go to the medical clinic for her exam. This is required before we can bring her back to the USA. I’m pretty sure she’s not going to be happy about it, especially since she’ll need to get a tb test. I just hope it’s not too traumatic for her. I mentioned on Facebook that Noelle had a fever a couple nights ago. Fortunately, that went away, but she still has a runny nose and a little bit of a cough off and on. Please pray that this doesn’t get any worse. We are so appreciative of everyone that’s been praying for us and been interested in our girl! I’ll try to update this blog as much as I can, but access to blogger has been really bad the last couple days. If you don’t hear from us, that’s why. We can email, but Facebook is also not working great. We are looking forward to coming home in a week!!