Tengwang Pavilion

Yesterday was my last day with Lucy as our guide; today brought Chris who is the head coordinator in China for my adoption agency and the person who guided our seven-family group through the 2-week process when I adopted Jaden. I was given no explanation for the hand-off, and honestly, it is at the bottom of my list of cares, so c'est la vie! (My Mandarin has not improved to the level to quip a suitable equivalent in the local tongue.) But I digress... We stopped back to that notary office so I could pay the chunk of yuan owed there for Harper's official adoption documents, which also were available for review before they received the embossed seal. And although most of the pages were in Chinese characters, the English parts seemed only to lack correct grammar until I saw the part about who on behalf of the orphanage was attesting to the child. Hmmm, name seems familiar (that of the Director who handed me a business card at the orphanage the day before), but the notation "female"? "Uh, Chris, isn't this wrong?" He did not pick up on it but did say the associated Chinese character was for male. All noted in the document as female would be okay, an inconsistency could mean a problem come time to get Harper's visa. So off he went to the back room to get it fixed, only a short wait, the notary jokes that perhaps the Director should have his gender notarized, ha, ha. Done. Find a taxi.

Our field trip for the day was to the Tengwang Pavilion, which was completed in 1989 as a replica of the original pavilion first erected in 653 AD. It has been destroyed and rebuilt 29 times (wars, fires, etc.) according to Wikipedia! It was built at the command of Prince Teng as a vacation home of sorts and was a place where poets would come to recite their work. Now as a tourist attraction, it houses the history of the pavilion and the Nanchang area, which is known for its porcelain (if you are reading this grandma, we have a nice gift for you!). On the top floor is where there are shows depicting the traditional dances and music from the time period when it was first built. We enjoyed the outing and fortunately it was not raining when we were out and about both then and later after nap so that Harper could take in the last bit of sights and sounds of her province, for now, as we leave tomorrow for Guangzhou.

Harper Yin Yin (mind you I realized that I had written her nickname phonetically when I got it that afternoon along with her, despite that they spell it Yan Yan; again, not so easy to say!) is doing well and more freely smiling and exploring and initiating interaction. But the tired girl is not so pretty right now as she is voicing (and she has quite the shriek) her frustration? anger? grief? It was the same with Jaden and part of the process I assume. She did get tired of yelling tonight and was then content to just rest her cheek on my chest and look at me, eye to eye. I tell her she is a brave little girl and it will get better, especially when she meets her jie jie!

In front of Tengweng Pavilion amid the puddles (note to self: don't wear light colored pants
when carrying around a toddler on a rainy day).

Performance on top floor of pavilion.

Up high overlooking the river.

Empress and empressette for a minute! Too funny.

Favorite Harper photo today (well, at least that is in focus) as she is checking things out.