Catherine, we've had a couple friends at home give us their shoes from China so Jia has a LOT of little shoes :) We aren't going to bother looking for her until we know what size she is. You bet we've scouted out the shoes though! The little shop near the hotel is still there. We've been looking for the older girls but the styles are just so 'cute' here and they simply aren't interested. Mostly runners out on the shelves too, not so much of the dressy shoes. The girls don't seem particularly interested in clothing either, not even Fei. The styles are bulky and warm. The fall and winter stuff is out. We're so hot it's hard to even fathom wearing stuff like that. My hands and feet are swelling from the heat and then they come back down once we get into our room. When you approach our door in the hallway you can feel the cool air from our air conditioner. It's comfortable in our room.
Funny bit about the room. The guide took us right up to our adjoining rooms and when we walked in there is a king and a crib, no where for the girls, so I quickly went to look into Mom's room and there are two twins. Missing one bed. So I ask about getting one more bed/cot. The guide smiles and waves her arm across the king and says 'yes, lots of room for a family'. I repeat that we're missing a bed for one of the girls and she says's 'yes, yes, LOTS of room for the whole family'. I smiled and said yes, lots of room. It's worked out OK, the girls are alternating nights in Grandma's room and one in between us in the king. That is an actual king, not two singles put together.
When we were here last there were adoptive families everywhere, the hotel seemed full. It's quite empty here now. The store in the lobby that had all the baby supplies is now men's clothing. We've only seen one other Caucasian couple with a little girl, they left the gym/pool and we haven't seen them since. When we came home today there was one white woman sitting in the bar. Other than that, we're it here. I know there are 6 adoptive families arriving tomorrow from Holt and Inge still has to arrive. There were only three tables of people at breakfast, which is now in the restaurant. Not enough people to warrant the hall upstairs. Perhaps more adoptive families will arrive tomorrow. We're just here early.
We ate at the hotel restaurant last night, the buffet was mostly seafood but we managed to find enough to eat. So far so good. It was pricey so we'll have to venture out but it's good to know we can count on food here if we need to.
It feels like we're on a holiday, arriving early really has helped in that way. It's just totally surreal that someone will hand me a beautiful baby tomorrow! Almost a family of 5!!
