China - Day 10

Last night was a rough night.  Maggie is not feeling well and was very restless and woke up crying several times throughout the night.  There were several times where she was completely inconsolable. I'm not sure if it's because she is not feeling well or because if in some way she knows that her life has changed and she is grieving for the loss of all that she has known in her short little life.  Either way, this mama's heart breaks when she cries and cannot be comforted.  She finally did fall into a deep sleep and slept until about 9:30am this morning.  As usual, when she woke up she was her sweet, happy little self!

 

We had a free day today so Dad, Maggie and I decided to check out the Museum of the Mausoleum of the Nanyue King.  It's a very cool place with exhibits of a tomb that was discovered in 1983 right around the corner from our hotel.  In addition to the Nanyue King there were 15 sacrificial victims found buried with the emperor.

This afternoon I hired Ann from Red Thread China to take us shopping at the pearl and jade markets as well as the silk market for traditional Chinese dresses for Maggie.  Ann is who I used to send a care package to Maggie shortly after I received her referral.  She is awesome and got us amazing deals on so many things!!  The jewelery market was a huge building full of vendors selling every kind of jewelery you could imagine.  Ann knew all the right places to go and was able to get us wholesale pricing on everything.  I bought some beautiful gifts to give to Maggie as she grows up!!

 Ann and the women in the store stringing pearl necklaces and bracelets for me

The jewelery market was HUGE!!!

Still smiling after buying lots and lots of jewelery :-)

Next was the jade market where we bought tons of things for Maggie at ridiculously low prices!!

Dad was chatting it up with all the ladies at the market

 These men were huddled in the street checking out a new selection of jade bangle bracelets

Ann was AWESOME and totally worth it to shop with!!  She loves working with adoptive families!!

 My love...

Maggie has been doing so great with her crawling and standing skills.  She absolutely LOVES this ball that her cousin Liam bought for her and will chase it all over our room to get her hands on it!!

Lion dancers in our hotel lobby celebrating the release of a new brand of wine!!

Although it was a happy day for us, it was also filled with sadness.  Today is Mom's birthday and she would have been 70 years old.  She was as excited as me for Maggie to join our family and she couldn't wait to travel to China.  I'm so sad that she isn't with us and that Maggie will never know the amazing Nana who loved her before she was even born.  Happy Birthday Mom - I miss you!