Wednesday in Shenyang

 Today we left to find some souvenirs for Jia Wen that are specific to the Liaoning province.  Our driver, Mr. Jaw? (can't spell it, but that's how it's pronounced) was kind enough to take us to an ancient street area built in the Qing dynasty.  We were able to get a neat "fur painting" for Jia Wen.  It is built up with feathers and such to give it a 3D look and then hand painted.  We chose a pig since she was born in 2007, which in China was the year of the golden pig.  Grace told us that she too was born in the year of the pig and that it is the luckiest animal because it just eats and lies around. Actually Grace has been a hoot.  She always ribs Steve about his big American nose and makes fun of us for eating KFC and liking sweet and sour chicken and pork.  

Later, our driver gave us some interesting Chinese candy to try.  It rocked.  Then he took us to another store where we bought Jia Wen a little Russian nesting doll.  In that area there is quite a bit of Russian influence since we are only 8 hours away from Russia.  It turns out we are also only 2 hours away from North Korea. 

"fur paintings"

ancient street area

Jia Wen and Maimie with their pink nail polish

 The bonding is pretty slow going.  Jia Wen, at times, is pretty unresponsive.  She will mimic, but doesn't respond to questions in English or Chinese.  She doesn't let us know if she needs to go potty, wants a drink, gets hungry, is sleepy.  She is grieving pretty hard at times.  She bursts into tears at certain times when I'm sure she would normally be missing her china mom such as when she wakes, gets sleepy, and various other times during the day.  At other times, she is happy, animated, and even disobedient and rough/aggressive.  She gets happy when it's time to put on shoes and clothes (totally girly!) and when it's time to eat.  She will reach for my hand to walk somewhere and has a couple of times reached up her arms to me to be held.  Maimie has been driving us all crazy trying to mother Jia Wen and run the show all the time.  I suppose it's been a difficult week for all of us.  In addition, Steve and I were both very sick again last night and still feeling queasy today.  This area is also bitter cold and we have been unable to get outside or really go anywhere to get food, etc.  We bought some soda cans and put them in the window to keep them colder than a fridge.  It is actually cheaper to buy new clothes then to have them washed here.  I am washing things in the sink, drying them in the tub rack, wearing them stiff and wrinkly. It feels a bit like we are camping at the North Pole.  I think we are all looking forward to getting to Guangzhou on Friday evening.  While this may be a great city, we haven't been able to enjoy it as much as we would have liked.  Tomorrow we are visiting the orphanage first thing in the morning.  It may be a very emotional day for poor little Jia Wen.