Gabe & Guangzhou

Gabe is so smart, loving and kind.  He is absolutely amazing, and going to fit into our family so perfectly!  He is already learning to sign two words together in sentences such as  "water please", "more please", etc.  He is signing a lot on command, but also signs things on his own too - more, water, eat, etc.  He probably knows about 40 signs now - he will put his shoes on when asked to, gets dressed on his own each morning, and is about half way to potty trained already (the orphanage hadn't potty trained him because they didn't know how to train a deaf child).  He is eating everything I give him, and I mean EVERYTHING!  This kid is going to eat us out of house and home - I'd better get right back to couponing when I get home!! :-)  He is so darn precious, I can barely stand it.  SO CUTE and the BEST personality!!

Today was lovely - a free day with group touring in the morning/early afternoon.  We started out at the Six Banyan Pagoda and Buddhist Temple.  A Banyan is a specific type of tree that grows native to China, specifically Guangzhou.  They are beautiful, and very unique, as the roots of the tree grow up and wrap around the tree trunk.  The Six Banyan Pagoda had many beautiful banyan trees, and was also a major Buddhist temple – statues of Buddha were at least two to three stories high and were inside a special prayer room (I didn't go in, just took photos from the outside).  Inside people would take their shoes off, walk over to prayer mats and burn incense at the altar while lying with their knees, elbows and forehead to the ground in prayer position. 

The altars were beautiful with all kinds of flowers and fruits set before Buddha – I suppose as a gift offering to him? I’m not really sure.  The trees and outdoors were more interesting to me – very beautiful and the weather today was gorgeous – sun shining and warm, just like home!

Anyway, afterward we were off to the Guangdong Folk Arts Museum , which was the former Chen House.  At one point the Chen family was very rich and powerful in Gaungzhou, so they had this amazingly beautiful home (photos below)….and then the government decided it would be a great place for the Folks Arts Museum, so they took it.  Interesting…

This afternoon included a trip to McDonalds and more importantly McDonalds got me my first “I love you” and kiss – all that for a hamburger and a happy meal toys – and unsolicited too!  He saw that we entered McDonalds and started touching my cheeks so I’d look at him and grinning ear to ear, then he held up his hand and signed “I love you” and then kissed me on the lips.  Seriously – I may take him back tomorrow – ha ha!! ;-)

Anyway, enjoy the photos…today is Sunday and it’s almost over – and we leave on Wednesday…only 3 more days!  Can’t wait to get my sweet boy HOME and see the rest of the family!  YAHOO!!!

Really cool backdrop in our bedroom

Don't know if you can tell but the shower and tub are
behind one glass door - together - the shower has
a normal nozzle and then one in the ceiling that comes straight down!

After pointing to the tree he signed "tree" :-)

A cool statue near the pagoda

The Six Banyan Pagoda - 9 stories tall from the
outside, but 17 stories tall on the inside

A woman praying in the Buddhist temple 

Love this photo!

Buddha

One of the many altars

Gabe told me what to do to pose for our photo!

The Chen home - now a government museum - these "animals" were
all stained porcelain from hundreds of years ago, never retouched

Amazing architecture on the top of the Chen home