Day 3 with Maggie

Well, let me start off by agreeing with Kevin that we are not in Tennessee anymore! Our daughter's homeland is nothing like we've ever experienced before. It's been a whirlwind so far and our guide is keeping our group pretty busy to pass the time quick. By the end of the afternoon we are pretty exhausted. Even with napping and sleeping all night (their night) your body is still saying, "Hold on something is way off here!". Right now, Maggie is in my lap as I type. She does not let me get out of sight or reach. And poor daddy....he wants to get ahold of her so bad! But she makes him keep his distance. So far, she's very shy. She keeps mostly to herself even with the other children in our group. She likes to be on the go and doesn't mind all the bumpy bus rides. Sorry there are no pictures to post this time. They're all on our small camera and I'm blogging on the iPad, so there's no way to upload them. I will post some soon, though. Both in size and behavior she is very much like a one year old rather than a two year old. Let me just say there is so much about China that is soooo different. The air quality here is very poor and everyone smokes. And smoking is not prohibited in public places like it is in America. So, you pretty much have the smell of a stale cigarette in your nose all the time. The amount of people here is unbelievable. We are in the capital city, Guiyang, of Guizhou and it has a population of 3 million and is considered to be small. And no wonder Chinese people are all skinny....they walk everywhere they go and let me tell you they walk fast! Our guide has to slow down a lot for us. The air here is also very dry, so it's easy to dehydrate. I think that happened to me the first day we were here. As Kevin said we were on a plane and off to find out that our children were waiting for us. We went straight from the airport to the civil affairs office with no time prepare! We followed our guide into a very old run down looking place and up to the 15th floor. We rounded the corner and there sat my daughter on a couch with her orphanage director. My heart nearly stopped and my feet did. I think I remember saying, "Oh my gosh, that's my baby.". She didn't want me as much as I wanted her at first so that part was rough. Even now she will have very little to do with Kevin. I ask all of you to please pray for her warm up to him. We know all of that is typical, but it's just hard. The hardest thing of all is being away from my 3 little munchkins at home! Oh I miss them so bad! We Skype with them every chance we get. Well, we still have a few more days to go. We fly from here, Guizhou, to Guangzhou on Friday. Our flight back to the USA can't come fast enough! We are blessed to be in good company though with the other families in our group. Good night for now from Guiyang. We love and miss you all!