August 28th James 1:27 Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. We all slept well last night and till 7am! Had a quick breakfast because during breakfast Sage exploded again! No more prune juice for this baby ever again! Did I tell you that we requested softer beds here at the white swan? We made that request before we actually came into our room. And when we sat on the bed, we could tell it was a softer bed than before. They brought in this pad thing and laid it on our bed, we added a few comforters and it is not to bad. Plus the bathtub here is deep, so I have been able to enjoy a few hot baths which are helpful as my back is killing me! Toting around a baby non-stop wears on you! We had our medical exam this morning. One room they listen to the baby’s chest, and I worried in that room a little. I wanted to ask about the chest rattle, but I also want to go home this week, and I feared if I said anything, they would say she could not leave. So she passed that room. Then on to the weight table. She is a growing girl! She is now 15 ½ pounds! As you can see in todays pictures, half of that is in the cheeks, the other half in her belly! Last room was a peek in the ears, rattle the toys to see if she can hear and all done. That last dr was rough, she scared me! Some of the babies screamed, but not Sage. She just stares at everyone who comes near her! The good news is she is declared healthy and ok to come home! We did more shopping after that. If Mark and I can make it through this trip it will be a miracle. He just makes it so not fun to shop! But we did get more done today, thankfully. We also went to the pearl and jade market. You have never seen anything like the stores here. Mark is slacking on the pictures recently, but it is amazing. It was at least 5 stories high. And goes on forever. Each store has jewelry everywhere. We looked at Jade, did not find anything we liked so moved on to pearls. Now, we are no jewelry experts by any means. And so the first strand they pull out is $30, which just seems very cheap. So we quickly called in help from Sabrina and that was fun in itself. I showed her the size I wanted, told her how much we wanted to pay, and she did all the work! We bought Sage the strand she is wearing to put away for either sweet 16 or her wedding. I bought myself a black pearl necklace that I really love. It is the larger pearls and just so pretty. We went for quality I suppose over quantity, or at least that is what we are convincing ourselves on! I wanted to get strands for Makenna and Malaine to put away, but Mark says we will get them something in America. See, the shopping thing! For dinner we went on the Pearl River Cruise. The food was awful, really awful. Our guide told us what each thing was, but I have to wonder what type of meat it was. Everything was grizzly, even the rice was bad! But the view was worth it all. Beautiful, everything was lit up. We ate dinner inside, but afterwards went up on top deck and just loved the breeze and how peaceful it was. I am so glad we went. One of those neat memories that we will try to hold on to for Sage. We came home and mark went out in search of food. He came back with hot dogs on a stick, but they quickly went into the trash and we settled for ice cream bars. Sage is doing great. Besides the diaper explosions! PLEASE pray the prune juice it out of her system before our plane ride home. She continues to give out more smiles each day. While out shopping today the Chinese girls want to hold Sage. Of course she goes to anyone happily. Today she did look at me as they took her, but she does not cry. Partly probably her personality, partly I think she is still not totally attached. I am still not worried, I realize it could take a long time for her to fully bond to us. And we have plenty of time that is for sure! We talked to the kids while we were on the cruise. They were eating breakfast getting ready for the first day of school! Makenna begins 3^rd grade, Sawyer kindergarten! Of course my heart is breaking to miss that day w/ them. I am really trying not to put to much thought into it, because it just makes me want to cry all over again! We know it is just a few more days, and the 6 of us will be going to school together! Tomorrow guess what we are doing? Yep, more shopping! One person has to be in the room for 90 minutes while our guides take our paperwork to the consulate. We have to be here in case they have any questions. Then they are taking a bus to the electronics store. I think I am staying back and may visit the pool w/ Sage. She has to have a picture in her cute swimsuit that I bought just for this trip! We don’t really want her swimming with her cough, but need the picture to share w/ you all! Tomorrow afternoon we are meeting for a group photo and the famous red couch photo! We also have a group dinner tomorrow night for our farewell.. Wow, farewell is already here! It will be neat to see everyone again, we do not see anyone here at this hotel it is so big. Are you all ready to finally see this little angel in person? We can’t wait to see you all for sure! Click Here to See Today’s Photos