Double Happiness

6 Banyon Tree Temple (then and now)

It's hard to believe that we were here not quite one year ago.  As we walked into the courtyard, we were filled with such a sense of deja vu.  You can read about last year's visit to this place here:  2005 Six Banyon Tree Temple.

Here are a few pictures of this year's visit.  Click the picture to see a larger view.

Far left is Sarah (from the famous USAA China Team) and Donna and the girls. The other picture is, of course, Andrew and the two smallest members of his fan club.

A few more pictures before Guangzhou

	This is our guide, David.  He looked after us so well while we were in Nanning.  He even entertained the girls while we packed (that was more help than he'll ever know!).  The kids really loved him!  The hand in the middle of the picture is Daddy's.  He's trying to get the kids to look at the camera.  Unfortunately, Mommy cut his head off since she was too busy looking at her pretty babies to notice that Daddy wasn't in the picture (bad Mommy!). :)
	Not even Britney Spears is *THIS* bad!  Look where our girls are standing!  Both girls wanted to sit with David and couldn't resist the view from the front seat so they stood up all the way to the Nanning airport.  Gwen tried to "help" the driver steer the van and change gears and he was a good sport about it while ensuring that we all arrived alive at our destination.  Without a car seat, Gwen is IMPOSSIBLE to control in a car or plane. She's a squirmy bouncy bundle of energy.  Most of the time, she's standing in Mommy's lap holding onto her thumbs and jumping up and down with a huge goofy grin on her sweet little face.
	The flight to Guangzhou was only one hour long but it was 60 minutes of pure challenge for Mom since Gwen needed to be entertained the whole time or she'd unfasten her seat belt and try to get out of her seat.  Here she is modeling Mommy's super mod reading glasses while sucking on a butterscotch lollipop.  When she was finished, she turned around and used all her charm to seduce the man next to her into giving her most of his in-flight snack -- which she neatly placed in her barf bag before asking him for more. All of this was yesterday evening.  Today, our first stop was the Temple (We'll blog some pics of that later) and our 2nd stop was a department store to purchase two car seats for our trip home!  1300 Yuan each but well worth it!

Last day in Nanning

	Andrew and his girls.
	Cute matching outfits (under $5 each!).
	Maddy loves to play peek-a-boo in the curtains of the hotel room.
	She weighs less than 20 pounds but she's a pretty good eater!  Here she is shoveling the sticky rice into her mouth.
	This is our reflection in the window at Pizza hut.   Even though we've eaten here three times, we seem to be getting thinner?
	We visited the Nanning zoo.  It was really clean and very nice.
	Andrew couldn't resist snapping this photo of an ancient playground set.  The only thing I could think of when I first saw it was tetanus and lead poising.  But other than that, it looks fun!
	Two happy girls!

Maddy's foster mother

Madeline was in foster care and we received a CD of many pictures and reports from the agency that sponsored her care (I'll blog more about that later).   

This is my favorite picture of Maddy and her foster mother.  It was taken in June when Madeline was 23 months old.  Her foster mother is 50 years old and has two sons and one daughter.  I think only one son is still at home and Maddy loved to play ball with him.

We know she'll eventually forget all about this wonderful family who cared for her for nearly a year and a half but we know they'll never forget her.    We'll send pictures to the SWI and ask that they send them to her foster mom and we'll print and frame this picture and keep it on the wall in Maddy's room at home. 

Playing in the hotel lobby

It's been pretty hot the last few days here in Nanning so we've looked for ways for the kids to burn off some excess energy without spontaneously combusting. The hotel has many adoptive families so they've installed a wood ramp for the strollers and the older toddlers love to use it as a slide. They'll happily play on this thing all day!

Maddy is a very happy little girl and she and Gwen get along very well when they're not competing for the same toy.  In wide open spaces (like the lobby), they'll chase one another and squeal in delight.  Everyone can't help but watch and smile. 

Today was a bit hard for Maddy as it seems that she's finally starting to figure out that this isn't just one really long play date.  She's been very weepy and she cries for her foster mother.  Fortunately, she's really attached to Andrew and he's able to give her some comfort.  She won't let him out of her sight!  In the last picture, she's asleep on him during the 5 minute taxi ride home from Walmart.  How cute is that!