Tuesday in Guangzhou

Today was mostly a free day.  The only thing we had scheduled was group pictures at 5.

After breakfast, we went shopping with our friends that we met from Texas.  We found some super cute traditional Chinese outfits for Alliot and some to take home for our other kids.  We bought some other fun items including a Dragon wallet and some fancy embroidered coin purses.  Jen really enjoyed bargaining with the different shops to get a lower price.  

We had a light lunch in our hotel room and went out this afternoon on a quest for some cheap fake UGG boots.  We went with our friend from Louisiana, and took a cab to get to the shoe shop.  We had never seen so many shoes in one spot before.  It was like an entire shopping mall full of different kinds of shoes.  But, we weren't able to find any UGGs, probably because they are out of season here.  Even though we didn't find what we were looking for, we still had a good time seeing the marketplace and taxiing around the city.  We were told that there might be some UGGs at another location, which we had typed in Chinese.  But when we showed the location to two different cab drivers, they both refused to take us there.  We still aren't sure why they wouldn't take us there.  So, we ended up going back to the hotel UGGless.

The group pictures were fun and we even got a picture of all of the adopted children sitting on a couch together.  We were surprised at how long they stayed on the couch without losing it.  After the group pictures, we went out with a few other families to Cantanese restaurant which was pretty good and reasonably priced.  We have met so many interesting people on our trip.  One person we met is part of a not-for-profit organization that rescues girls from human trafficking by pretending to be a dealer and buying them into freedom.  He has been all over the world, and most of their work is done in India.  We met a couple adopting a 13 year-old and another that is adopting a 6 year old.  It is so cool to see all of the work God is doing through all these people that we are meeting.

We are having a good time in China, but are definitely missing the kids and are ready to come home soon.  Tomorrow is our Consulate appointment, which means we will get Alliots visa so that he can come with us to the good ole' United States of America.