Day 6: Sightseeing and Saying Good-Bye to Daddy

Today was a full day in China and thankfully there were NO adoption-related meetings/appointments!  After I enjoyed my last run in China (since Jason leaves today, more on that later) in the SUNSHINE (it has been overcast and/or raining since we got here), we had a good breakfast at the buffet before meeting up with our travel group and guide to head to the Guandong Museum.  It was about a 20 minute drive through this huge city and the museum itself is located in the "new city center" area of Guangzhou.  It is a VERY contemporary and westernized area, as evidenced by all the amazing architecture.

The Guandong Museum was amazing, full of wonderful information about this Province in China, including some information about the Hakka people group that Jenna is from, that we'll be able to share with her one day. 

After the museum, we enjoyed the beautiful day at the nearby Asia Olympic Park. 

Once back to the hotel, we enjoyed lunch (Shelby is mastering the art of using chopsticks!) and touring the beautiful hotel gardens. 

Once back in the room, I put Jenna down for a nap in the middle of the king-size bed (she still wants NOTHING to do with the crib, so hopefully she'll transition well to her single bunk bed at home!)  while Jason started packing up to head to Hong Kong in order to catch his flight back to Atlanta.  Although we planned for him to leave after one week, I'm sad that he has to go even though I want him home with the boys and he needs to get back to work.  But what saddens my heart the most is that this week was very hard for Jason because Jenna is not bonding with him the way we hoped she would.  She will sometimes play with him, but she does NOT want him to touch her or hold her at all.  Obviously, this makes Jason very sad because he loves her very much, and it breaks my heart for him.  Yet I have seen some progress even in the past couple of days, so I am confident that her love for him will grow beyond measure...but in the meantime, it's hard.  I cried many tears as Jason departed, looking forward to a week from now when Shelby, Jenna and I will be HOME!
 

Since it was such a beautiful day, the girls and I headed to the hotel's playground.  Other families in our travel group were there, as well.  Jenna did not want to participate in any activity, but Shelby had a great time.  However, once the other families left and it was just Shelby, Jenna and I, Jenna came to life and had a ball going down the slide with her big sister and eventually all by herself.  The orphanage had told us that Jenna was very shy/timid around strangers, so this is all becoming more real to me as I observe Jenna's personality and behaviors with each new day.

We then enjoyed a delicious dinner at a Mexican restaurant (yes, Mexican food in China...go figure!) with the Trinh family from our travel group.  I enjoyed chicken soft tacos but the girls had good ol' American chicken nuggets and French fries.  Jenna will eat anything, but I didn't want to overwhelm her little tummy too much with Mexican food...and they did tell us she doesn't like spicy food, just like her momma!

After our walk back to the hotel, the girls enjoyed another bath together and it just amazes me how far Jenna has come in a few days.  The first night I tried to bathe her, she SCREAMED at the sight of the bathtub and now, she freely gets in with her big sister...so precious and so amazing!  Then one of the greatest parts of my day was getting to Skype with Nathan and Andrew.  Jenna was in a very happy mood and even made the boys laugh, so that did my heart a lot of good tonight!