Guangzhou Day 2

This morning, we had the "must have" White Swan red couch photos taken with our travel group. Our travel group consists of five families that adopted one boy, age 4, and four girls, ages 4, 5, 7, and Kara as the oldest at 11, along with several siblings. One of the families in our group has 14 children, this being their 8th adoption from China, plus some adoptions from Taiwan. I was trying to sell her on me being her agent and trying to get her a show on TLC to replace J*on & K*ate + 8 when they eventually go off the air. I don't think I've sold her on the idea yet. She brought along two of her girls, ages 11 and 12, and they are just adorable children. Leila and Kara have really taken to them and love being around them. I look at those girls and think of how well-behaved and mature they are and realize that Kara is the exact same age and I am astonished that I now have an 11-year old!!

Our honeymoon period almost ended today. Well, in fact, it did end for a bit. Because we have more children in our group now that we are in Guangzhou, our little duo has been introduced to some new friends and it has caused some jealousy. Since last night, we could just feel the tension building up, as one of the girls would get left out of a certain game or conversation. In truth, it was Leila who was leaving out Kara. I don't really think it was intentional, but Leila just gets so caught up in the moment and was having a great time playing with her new friends. It all culminated into a little breakdown today at the Buddhist Temple when Leila expressed resentment that her older sister was getting so much attention from Nolan and I. Even though she is here with us... experiencing this real-time with us... she is still too young to understand the magnitude of what all this change is like for Kara and how Nolan and I need to create an environment to facilitate bonding and attachment. Fortunately, the dynamic duo was back in full force tonight and they were walking around holding hands, playing games and acting like they have been the past 6 days. I am sure this is the first of many similar episodes that we will need to deal with.

After the Buddhist Temple, we went to the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum so I could drool over, er, I mean admire, the beautiful embroidery. I had my eye on one in particular and for a mere $6,600 US dollars, it could have been mine. Oh, how I love those gorgeous Chinese embroideries!! Every little stitch like a brush stroke in an Impressionistic painting.

After dinner tonight (Papa John's pizza in our hotel room, which Kara loved), we met her friend, Lela, and her family for a swim. It was great for Kara to get to see her friend again. They just get together and talk, talk, talk non-stop. Oh, how I would love to know what they were talking about. It puts me in check with what she is dealing with.... wanting so badly to know what we are talking about.

BTW, she may just be a good faker, but I really think she's starting to like all the goodnight kisses. Score one for the American team!! :)