Shopping adventures

April 20:  I don't often think about how much I love the sidewalks in America, but to all you civil engineers out there – Thank you for designing very practical sidewalks that are not aesthetically pleasing.  Have I mentioned how shinny the sidewalks in China are?  Even the ramps to buildings and down into the streets are high gloss.  High gloss sidewalks and rain are not a good combination, especially when you use arm crutches.  Poor Helen had one fall that I missed, and two that I caught.  (Wallen kids – Molli says my left arm was the nail today for Helen.  The nail is back on Aleve.)  We ventured into a department store where we secured a few treasures.  Namely Disney princess books in Chinese and origami folding papers – yes, they are the girly girls.  After shopping we wisely stood in the rain to catch a taxi and avoid any more physical contact with sidewalks.  I was shocked when a 20ish man stepped right in front of us and took our taxi.  Another older Chinese man made sure no one took our next one.  Molli found a fallacy today for her school fallacy folder on a billboard that said "Chivas: live with chivalry".  Hmmm – guess the younger man hasn't had his Chivas today.  Of course Molli had no idea what Chivas was, so a lot of explaining had to be done before she could classify the fallacy.  Thanks to my childhood neighbors, the Regals, who named their dogs 'Chivas' and 'Brandy', I could interpret the billboard.   We sent 5 pairs of Helen's pants out to the tailor today to have several inches removed from the bottom.  They were returned in less than 3 hours for a total of 25RB = $3.00.    Tomorrow, we will received Helen's Chinese passport and continue our adoption trip to Guangzhou.  In Guangzhou she will have to complete all the health requirements for immigration and then become a citizen of the United States.  Currently, we are scheduled to stay in the same hotel as friends from Hudson Community Chapel who are here adopting a three year old.  It will be very fun to meet up with them.  They live less than a mile from our home and we have prayed for each other's daughters over the last year.  Unbelievable that we are here together!