The last two days have been really slow. Yesterday (Monday) was a scheduled free day.  We went back to Shamian Island in the morning to finish up our shopping.  We ate lunch at Lucy’s (again) and came home in time for Molly Kate to get a late nap.  We went to eat Mexican (yes, Mexican!) with some friends last night. It was actually really good.  Chips and salsa never tasted so good!!

Today we were supposed to go to the zoo with our agency group.  However, a typhoon moved into Guangzhou overnight so the trip had to be canceled.  We are disappointed but we definitely do not want to go to the zoo in this weather!  It rains hard off and on and is pretty windy.  As long as it moves out by Thursday (when we begin our journey home) we are fine. 🙂  We did go out to the mall this morning just to get out of the hotel room.  We got our last two souvenirs and had lunch at Pizza Hut.  Molly Kate loves pizza. Actually, she has loved everything we have given her.

Since there isn’t much to write today, I thought I’d tell you a little more about our sweet girl.  We knew a little bit about her situation before we left but not everything.  She was found on October 24, 2010 on the steps of an outpatient hospital.  We were given a copy of the newspaper clipping listing her placement in the Leizhou City Social Welfare Institute.  Her picture and information was released in January 2011 along with 40 other children that had been abandoned.  The families were given 60 days to come and claim their child otherwise they become wards of the state.  Wow…40 kids at once! I don’t know how often they release these newspaper reports but I’m sure it happens often enough.  And all of this was just in one province.  The amount of orphans is just staggering.

We don’t know too much about her life in the orphanage.  We do know she probably spent a lot of time in her crib and in a walker. They did not let her feed herself because of the cleft palate so she cannot self-feed at all. She will not put anything in her mouth. She cannot suck on a straw so we have a difficult time getting her to drink.  A few more things about Molly Kate right now:

• She eats anything we give her.  The only thing she has spit out of the mouth is bacon and I think it was just too hard.  She loves spaghetti and pizza.
• Most of the time the only time she cries is when her food is all gone.  She eats a lot at each meal but no matter how much she eats, she still cries after it is gone.  It is such a pitiful whimper of a cry.
• Zach has already taught her how to give five and knuckles. She does them one right after the other.  It is so cute.
• She throws everything.  She throws her toys all over the hotel room.
• She loves to touch anything with textures.  She loves the books that have textures on each page.
• She HATES to have her face or nose wiped.  We have tried to brush her teeth twice and she cried both times.
• We lay down with her at night and sing her a few songs.  After a few minutes, we put her in her crib to go to sleep.  She rolls around and kicks her legs for about 30 minutes and then drifts off to sleep.
• She sleeps on her back or side. I have never seen her sleep on her stomach.

We LOVE our baby girl! We cannot wait to get home and start life as a family of 6.  Three more nights!!

Yesterday on Shamian Island.

Pearl River

 I opened up a package of 100 calorie cookies yesterday and Molly Kate immediately ran to my chair. Reminds me SO much of Ethan. He can hear a wrapper a mile away. 🙂

 Wearing Daddy’s hat.

 Sweet girl!

 Zach insisted on taking her picture while she was crying today at Pizza Hut after she finished her lunch.  She ate a jar of baby food, a bag of goldfish and a piece of pizza and still wanted more.  I promise we didn’t let her cry for long.

 She leans all the way over towards whoever happens to be feeding her. This girl is serious about her food. 🙂