Church

Today has turned out to be such a great day. :) We'd met another adopting family earlier in the week, and would often see them at breakfast. Today we got ready for church and went down to eat breakfast, and they were there. In dress clothes. The wheels started turning in my mind, and finally I asked if they were going to church, and they said yes. An LDS church? Yup!

We took a taxi to the Guangzhou branch, which is held in the Marriott Pearl Hotel. We met lots of wonderful people there. Just like on our previous visit, there were people from all over the world. We only recognized one person from 10 years ago, a very big Nigerian man who'd since gotten married and had two kids. That was awesome to see.

We also met a guy who really took to Thalia. I chalked it up to her general adorable-ness, but he later got up and bore his testimony, and talked about growing up with his younger brother with Down syndrome. It made me very emotional!

We met another adoptive mom who had lived in Shanghai and had been able to foster her son for five months. They ended up having to go back to the states abruptly when her husband was laid off, so friends cared for the boy for 8 months until they were finally able to come back.

We learned that there are many wards and branches for Chinese nationals, but of course, they can't have anything to do with the international ex-pat groups. A member of the branch presidency even spoke briefly about the importance of not proselyting or sharing church materials with the Chinese. But I love knowing that the gospel is quietly moving forward in China among the Chinese. So awesome!

After church, the man with the brother with Down syndrome invited us to go to lunch with his family and the other adoptive family from our hotel. (People travel long distances to get to this branch and have to stay to help put everything away after the meetings, so it sounds like lunch out is a common event.) We ended up going to the Tianhe area where there were several western style restaurants. There were more Caucasians there than we've seen the whole time we've been here! Curtis and I got pasta and falafel sliders, Lily had a Vietnamese noodle dish, and Thalia had mac and cheese. After that we went to a pie place and got slices of pie to bring home for "dinner." We left through a mall that was full of stores I could never shop in - Hermes, Dior, Chanel, Tiffany, Montblanc, etc. Holy cow.

Thalia is such a go-with-the-flow kid. She took all our activities in stride. Nothing seems to throw her. She's going to do great in our family! She kept herself occupied during lunch by feeding and playing with the other couple's baby. It was so sweet. :)

I forgot to mention, we rescheduled our safari park trip to tomorrow. It was really cold today and church went until 1:00, so we decided to do it after our 8:30 consulate appointment tomorrow. I think the other family is going to come, too. I hope so. :)