Our last day in Nanning.

Today was our last day in Nanning. We are to meet in the lobby of our hotel at 6:00 am. I'm a little concerned about Jillian's lack of breakfast, but the flight is very short, so hopefully it won't be too bad.

We landed on Monday full of so many questions. We are leaving tomorrow with more answers than I ever would have imagined. We have learned so much about her little life in the short 4 days that we have known her. She has completed or family. I know she was meant to be ours, and I am so incredibly thankful to have her as my daughter. You all are going to be over the moon when you meet her. Her little personality is so contagious!! I can see we have a few challenges ahead, but her cuteness makes up for it all!!! She is also so amazingly smart. Tonight in the bathtub, she put the washrag on her head, (all by herself), then pulled it off, and said "Pie"!! She has already learned our version of pea-pie. Or peek a boo as you may call it. We call it pea-pie. There is so much she does that reminds us of our kiddos back home. I can't even stress how well she blends into our family.

Today, we went drove to the top of the tallest mountain in Guangxi Province. It was beautiful. Unfortunately, it apparently was the field trip spot for every child in Nanning. They were everywhere!!!! And quite a few times, they swarmed our group. Roy and I eventually headed out on our own, and we got swarmed by ourselves. The first group really scared me how crazy enthusiastic they were about Jillian. All in her face, and then grabbing her. I took their picture, and grabbed her back. Then, another group of girls swarmed the stroller so much that we couldn't even push it. They weren't as aggressive, but one of the girl's tried to feed Jillian her juice. Again, we had to grab at it quickly. It's peculiar to me how they are here. I can't see Collin on a field trip with his friends running over to a couple with a baby. But, maybe they don't see babies very often.

One other interesting thing happened. The three of us, (Roy, Jillian, and I), were standing aside with our guides today, when a tall Chinese gentlemen passed and mumbled something. One of our guides instantly told us he said, "that baby is a foreigner". Meaning.....we were with a group of Chinese babies, but ours wasn't a Chinese baby....in his opinion. So, i began to ask him about the minority possibilities for Jillian. We had already known her area was known to have a large majority of minorities, but technically, legally, minorities are not allowed to be adopted out of the country. In fact, minorities do not even have to abide by the one child policy. However, we have had SO many people tell us that she didn't look Chinese, that I was really starting to wonder. Long story short....both of our guides feel like Jillian is from a minority ethnicity. There are so many minorities, there is no way to know which one....but we all feel like she is probably from the Zheung minority. Not for sure, but probably. She is from a town called Guiping City, and there, there are many of the Zheung people. That is one question that we will never know the answer to. Anyway, that all probably means nothing to you, but it was fascinating to me.

We fly to Guangzhou, Guangdong tomorrow. This is the last leg of our trip. We will be leaving one week from tomorrow to come home. We are very much enjoying our journey, but we are missing our babies at home!!!! We have really expected this to be more difficult, in terms of food, and everyday conviences, but it hasn't been too bad at all. In fact, I think both of us have gained weight because we have enjoyed our breakfast buffets way too much. And now that we're in a town with Mcdonald's and Pizza Hut, we've been in trouble!!! And our next place has a Starbuck's. We'll really be in trouble then.

I've posted a few pictures already below this post. I hope you enjoy them. A few of the swarming kids, and just a couple of us.

Thanks for following our journey....see you next time in Guangzhou!!