American Freak Show

Our group trying to get to the dept. store
A woman reading our "liscence to carry" as our friend from CA calls it.

In America when we see something we perceive as odd or strange, we generally try to look while trying to look as though we are not looking. None of that pretense here. Where ever we go, we draw a crowd. The Chinese people are very open and friendly and just line up and speak to you in Chinese. We pull out our little card that tells them who we are and what we are doing with Chinese babies. They smile big and give you a thumbs up and then continue to talk to you in Chinese. If it's a woman over the age of 50, she will point and tell you that your baby is cold and needs more clothes on. This while you are sweating in your tshirt and jeans, just wishing it were acceptable to wear shorts and flip flops. I have not seen one bare pair of legs or feet since we've been here. The kids are all bundled up in ski type coats, while we are hot in our short sleeves. I am really surprised by the high fashion of the women here. They dress much different than many of the Chinese Americans we see in our area. We are going to zoo this morning. I anticipate we will draw more attention than the pandas. I will make sure and have Piper dressed as warmly as possible without making her uncomfortable.
On another note, our little Piper has earned herself a nickname around here - Hyper Piper! We've been hanging out a lot with a family from CA who have 3 older children, 13, 11, and 9 years old I think. The 9 year old boy started calling Piper, Hyper Piper b/c she is so active and animated when we go out. Many of the babies are pretty quiet so far, so she kind of makes sure she gets attention by blowing raspberries, babbling, and making eye contact with people.
One of the prayers I prayed over and over was that we would begin to see her personality early on and that she would be open to connection. We can put a giant check mark next to that one!
Off to the zoo!