September 17, 2006 Today was a fairly uneventful day, more or less. We got up this morning, and at breakfast we discovered that our little girl has a thing for pancakes. This will make her Papa (Jones) happy, we know. Before going site seeing, a few of the families got together in one of our rooms for a devotional time. We had asked our guide if there were any churches nearby that we could attend, but apparently, he was never able to find one. Anyway, at the devotional, we talked about how God had taught us a few things this week. One of the men told about how God had shown him through his daughter that He (God) always had everything under control, and so we need to stop our fussing and crying every time something doesn’t go according to our plan. I talked about how God had shown me a little of the depths of his love for us. Even though Mary Joyce doesn’t do much besides eat, sleep, cry, and mess up diapers, I still love her, and nothing she will ever do will change that. This was a pretty good image of why God sent his son to die for us. After devotions, we went to do some sight seeing. Given that this is Nanchang, that didn’t take too long. Our excursion essentially was a trip to a park, and then to Wal-mart. While we were at the park, we were able to see just a little bit of everyday life for the Chinese. We saw families with kids (never more than one kid per family), and we saw more girls than we had expected. Dusty and I concluded that no matter what language people speak, little girls are little girls, and little boys are going to be little boys. After going to the park, it was off to Walmart to stock up on some much needed supplies, like bottled water (no one drinks the tap water here, not even the local population). Having been there twice now, I will never again complain about the crowds in the Albany Wal-mart. There were not any problems; it's just that the place was packed full of people. I would have made some pictures of what it’s like inside, but we have been warned that Walmart doesn’t let you take pictures in the building. We went back to the Hotel, and it being Sunday, we had, you guessed it, pizza from Pizza Hut. Believe it or not, it tastes pretty much the same as in the US, except the cheese has a little different flavor to it. This afternoon, we went back to the room, and the Thomas family took one big nap that lasted a couple of hours. We were simply that exhausted. This was the first chance in several days that we have had to relax. This evening, at dinner, we had the usual buffet, except that this one included “Grilled Salmon Head.” I’m not making that up: that have labels next to each entrée, and that was what that particular dish was called, and it was an accurate description. I couldn’t help but wonder what happened to the rest of the body. (Also, for Group 106, Tim's meatballs were on the buffet tonight. We didn't try those, either.) During supper, Mary Joyce had a melt-down, of sorts. (She has these on occasion, usually when we are trying to eat. Dusty and I have been doing a lot of eating in shifts.) I got her up and walked her around. This hotel has a fairly accomplished lady that plays the piano during the evening hours, and so I was able to walk Mary Joyce to some music. That helped calm her down. Mary Joyce seems to enjoy music, and dances to it sometimes. As it turns out, I still have a copy of the music from VBS loaded onto my computer. Who could have ever guessed that it would come in handy while we were in China? Tomorrow, we are flying to Guangzhou, which is where the US Consulate is located. We'll get some more posted as soon as we get into our hotel.     Sunday Devotional Time (Our Apologies to Marsha for the Photo Timing)     Family Transportation in China   Park in Nanchang     That can't be comfortable!     Moms and Babies   Musician in the Park     Boys Will Be Boys     Even in China, we can't stay out of Wal-Mart.   Daddy's Girls     Say cheese!           This page hosted by