A Day of Rest

Today (Monday) we decided to just take a break from the schedule. Our group went to the zoo today but we decided to just stay at the hotel and bond with Mariah.  It is crazy humid here and I wasn't sure the animals would be out. Not to mention that Mariah's rash has moved up to her face now and she is scratching even more. Heat makes it much worse, so we stayed in. Can you see how tough the day was?

We discovered how much Mariah likes bananas! She at an entire banana after breakfast. With that said, she can make a corn flake last an entire mealtime. Oh my, she is slow! I think there is just too much going on there at breakfast. There are people everywhere and she is busy watching.


Once again, naptime had to be accomplished with singing from me. I'm really okay with that. She naps well. Usually her nap lasts 2 hours. Today we had to wake her up at 4pm. I thought if she slept longer it would ruin her night's sleep.


We spoke with our kids in the States again on Skype. My poor Ben is now wheezing. Tammy is calling his pulmonologist. My guess is he needs on an oral steriod.


We decided to go get a few groceries this evening. We needed some water and a few snacks for Mariah. So we ventured over to a different store. I'm not sure who designed these stores here but they certainly make it a challange to find almost anything.

We bought raisins for Mariah as well as a box of Cheerios. Then we found some small juice boxes and thought she may like that too. Finding dinner spots was next to impossible! We finally did and managed to make it back to the hotel without it raining on us. Notice her face in the above picture. The mysterious rash has moved to her face. 


Mariah has come to life! She is gladly offering smiles and giggles to us. She gladly comes to me too. My mom and dad's roll is basically to play with her. They are enjoying this time but we are all ready to come home. 


I think I probably sound a little homesick. I know I write this on every post in my blog while in China. But honestly, I do miss my kids terribly. Especially when they are sick!


The time here has been nice but we are ready to board that plane for the long flight home.


My heart also is aching for some very sweet friends of ours. Their son, Alex, was in a terrible accident. Alex is serving in the military and is stationed in Italy. He was in a mountain bike accident and he injured his heart among other things. He is not doing well right now and his parents are desperately trying to get expedited passports to be with him and his family. He is a daddy and husband and could desperately use some prayer. Damage was done to his heart as an artery was punctured, twice. That is repaired but he is still not doing well. The doctors do not know if he will make it. Please pray for Alex Mace if you would.


I will end this post with pictures from the city here. The fountain in the picture below is in front of our hotel. Honestly, you don't have to look at all these pictures. This is Mariah's story and I am doing this for her history. I would love to share this with all of you though.

This is a picture from the shopping center across the street. The two buildings are both our hotel. There are two towers. We stayed at the tower on the right.

Here is a picture of what the streets look like, from the pedestrians' perspective.

This is the Friendship Store. This is not a typical American store. There are two buildings of this store with 7 floors to shop from. We needed the groceries but no one seemed to understand what I meant until one young woman said, "Oh, supermarket!"  YES!!!! Well, we were in the wrong building. So we walked across to the second building and used the "lift" up to the fourth floor. That is where the supermarket was. But Jeremy wanted to look at their toy section. So, on we went. We had to find a different elevator and went up another floor to the fifth. Then we took two different escalators up to the seventh floor. I got tired just typing that!

Tomorrow during the day is free time. In the evening we take a cruise on the Pearl River. They say how beautiful the lights on the buildings in Guangzhou are at night. I think Mariah will enjoy it too.