"She is the stinker that the sages have foretold!"

Sorry, inside joke I guess, but James kept doing a funny fake Chinese voice all day, saying things like that!  But it is true - she is totally a stinker.  When we first saw her file, that is one of the things that drew us to her, and we nailed it.  She is doing something funny all the time.  I should say she is a stinker when she is in her comfort zone.  When she is in an unknown place, around bunches of strangers, she completely shuts off, and gets stone faced and pretty scared.  Like the whole time we were at the consulate appt, she just looked scared to death, and even started shedding a few tears.  Poor thing - who wouldn't cry if you had to go sit in a government building, bored for an hour!

Speaking of consulate appointment, though, it went very well.  No issues with the paperwork, it was smooth sailing.  Richard, our guide, will go pick up her passport tomorrow with the US immigration stamp in it, and then we are free to leave!  It took us about an hour, and was really pretty painless. We saw many of the families we've seen along the journey, including our group from Hefei.  That seems like YEARS ago, honestly. 

I'm just going to comment on the pics that Ben is going to post for me:

• First one is at breakfast.  We sat outside today, and it was just beautiful.  The breakfast is AMAZING here!  If any adoptive families read this, I highly recommend staying at The Garden.  This place rocks!
• Next one is Sophie in the lobby of the medical building.  They have a wine vending machine - what the heck??  We got a kick out of that, and had to share.
• Then the next 5 are outside at the consulate building.  The big squiggly map thing was super cool, and is an etched map of Guangzhou.  There was a massive line of Chinese people waiting outside, probably to obtain different types of visas.  Luckily we didn't have to wait in any line, and were ushered in right away. 
• Then the last couple were swimming in the afternoon back at the pool.  Both Sophie and Cora wanted to literally be attached to me most of the time, and both were being jealous of my attention to the other.  Oh, it begins!!   James was off doing a photo shoot of the area, otherwise, he would have been swimming with us and could have helped with that.  But it all worked out.  Cora likes the water - doesn't love it yet, but was excited to go in today.

That's about it for today.  Oh, we call her our little Wookie, because she just makes funny noises all the time.  She spouts out Chinese words here and there, but most of the time just grunts and points and whines when she wants something.  She did mimick me a few times today in English, but she REALLY resists doing that.  So I think that will be one of our challenges when we get home.  But she understands a lot of what we tell her, and I know she could say things if she wanted to.  But she does not!

One more day tomorrow (Wednesday), and then pack it up Thursday morning.  i think we are doing a museum tomorrow, and then going to this big circus thing tomorrow night, which we are excited about!

Until then....