Walmart, Pearls and a Small Bit of Progress

Today was shopping day for us. We first went to Walmart… yes, I’m serious. Walmart here is two stories tall and it is in a shopping mall area. We went there to buy diapers, wipes, and various other items for the baby and for us. It is the strangest thing walking around and seeing familiar items that we’d buy in the U.S. but now with Chinese packaging – Coke, Crest Toothpaste, Listerine, Pampers, Huggies wipes. It was a hoot.

After Walmart we went to the Nike store to buy us each a shirt. Let’s just say the clothing sizes in China are VERY different from the sizes in the U.S. The people working in the store were fascinated by Chloe but they knew no English (except for “XXL”). Fortunately our guide was kind enough to give each family a badge that we could wear around our neck when we went out that contains a note written in Chinese explaining where were are from and that we are adopting a Chinese baby. It came in very handy. People were interested in us and they were very nice. One lady on the street wanted to know why we chose China and if we would bring Chloe back to China someday.

While waiting for all of the other families to finish their shopping we sat outside and ate a McDonalds’ ice cream cone. Chloe loved this! She would let me put the ice cream on her tongue and she kept asking for more. I also experienced more progress on this shopping trip. Chloe discovered that she liked to play and pull at my hair. I was just happy that she was taking any interest in me at all. She also played a game with me where she’d put her hand up to my mouth and see if I’d kiss it. I still can’t hold her, but at least there wasn’t tears when I smiled at her today.

While Chloe (and daddy) napped I went shopping for pearls. I wanted to get something that came from the Guangxi province and pearls are one of the items from here. The prices for items like pearls in China are wonderful. I ended up buying both Skylar and Chloe presents for their 16 and 18 birthdays. Of course I bought something for me too. The ladies behind the counter were so nice to us. I only went to the store with one other family and between the three of us we had five people helping us. I just had to take their picture before we left.

This evening ended with a party in one of the adopting family’s room. Most everyone from our travel group was there. It was very nice to relax and to get the children together to play.