It's Moving Day!!! GZ here we come!

 Our last day in Xian (yes!) was spent playing in the room, running the halls playing hide and seek, and on Skype with Marshall, Macey, Matt, Rachel and Grandmother and with Mandy, Wes, Madison and Sam (Meritt's sister's family in Birmingham).  It was really fun to catch up with them...and the girls (Maggie and Mary Henley) wowed everyone with their Chinese version of Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star.  Above Mary Henley's squinty face that she puts on when I pull out the camera and ask her to smile...typical three year old response!

 Maggie decide she needed one of my hats to complete her ensemble today...and below the girls have their Dora dolls tucked in for the night and are feeding them a disgusting mixture of water and strawberry flavored curls.  Again with the Mary Henley please pose for a picture face...this is her barking face.  Meritt and I are learning them all...it's fabulous!  Maggie loves to smile!

 It is a hoot to sit there and watch them play together...they carry on complete conversations of what we have no idea...but, they really seem to be having a good time together.  Mary Henley is more of the mother...she makes sure we all have gum, or gold fish, or water...she's very nurturing.  Maggie is the thinker and brings the imagination...she is very quick to figure things out and then likes to fully explore the adventure.

 Below are two pictures we snapped of the location that Maggie was found.  We were unable to get out of the car as it was quite a congested area, and we were on the way to the airport to catch our flight to GZ.  Maggie as found on January 14th, 2008 by an individual at this mall and was given over to the police that day and ultimately to the orphanage.  She was approximately 3 months old at the time.  As we were riding by this mall area, it hit Meritt and I that it was almost 4 years to the day that she was found...while the pictures give you a little sense for how crowded an area it is...they do not give it full justice.  We imagined this 3 month old baby left in a crowd of people on a very cold day in January...much like today.

 Couldn't help but sneak in this..."aaaahhhhhhh" picture of Mary Henley sleeping in Meritt's lap as we made our way to the airport.  Maggie is on the other side also catching a few Z's!

Well we are in GZ and checked into the Garden Hotel (very nice)...a wonderful welcomed change of scenery!  The girls did great on the plane, although they are still very overwhelmed by the process of traveling it is amazing to see how far they have come since those first days together.

Two quick stories - when we arrived in GZ both Lily and Rebecca met us at the airport but only Lily rode to the hotel with us.  Along the way, she got into a lengthy conversation with Maggie...after quite some time Meritt asked Lily what she was saying.  Lily laughed and said that Maggie had explained to Lily that her Mama was American, spoke English and had a suitcase full of very pretty clothes that she had bought just for her.  It's all about the basics!

After we got settled into our hotel room, Meritt got the girls ready for bed and I found the couch, an apple/pear type of fruit that was really good, and put my feet up on a makeshift coffee table.  Within a minute, both girls were at my side, staring at an ESPN rerun with me...Mary Henley imitating me with her feet up on the coffee table and Maggie looking to bogart a piece of my apple/pear fruit thing.  It was awesome!  Ever warm smiles...and, I even got some kisses too!

Good night to all!