Day 9

We're halfway through our time in China!  I'm anxious to get to Guangzhou where there's a pool for Sierra to swim in, a playroom for Cadence, and some good shopping for me!   We went to the Museum of Inner Mongolia today which I had assumed was a museum about the history of IM.  Not so much!  The place is humongous and has a lot of different rooms that seem to be all of the various Smithsonians rolled in to one.  We stayed for a little while but I don't think we covered everything there.  I was anxious to get to our next stop.     We went to Huhhot Hospital No. 1.... where Cadence was found.  It is on the outskirts of town and there was a lot of construction going on around it.  We weren't able to go inside, so we just took a picture of all of us outside.  So many emotions while we were there.  I feel so thankful to Cadence's birth mother who carried her for 9 months and when she realized that she couldn't care for Cadence she took her to a warm, safe place where she knew that someone would find her.  My heart breaks for her birth mother imagining what it must have been like to leave Cadence behind.  I'm sad that this society wouldn't accept her because she was a girl or had a cleft palate and that there isn't the means to have her palate fixed if her family had no money.  I'm thankful that fate, God, or destiny has brought us this beautiful little girl who we will come to know and care for and whom we already love with all of our hearts.  I know that she is "lucky" that she gets to leave the orphanage and have all of the opportunities of living in America with a loving family, but mostly I feel like we are the lucky ones to have this child come in to our home and our lives.   Sierra had collected money at her birthday party (in lieu of gifts) so that we could buy clothes and supplies for the oprhanage.  Our guide, George, asked at the front desk where we could do some shopping.  He wrote the name down on a piece of paper for me.  Brad stayed at the hotel while Cadence napped and Sierra and I set out to try and get a taxi.  We hailed one, I showed him the paper, and he dropped us off at the Shangri La Hotel.  They had one store to shop in... Louis Vuitton!  We decided to pass!  We walked a ways and found some "shops" down an alley and bought a bunch of clothes.  We also found a mall and got some toys and diapers.  And we successfully caught another taxi home!!   We've had another fabulous day with Cadence too!  She is a rowdy jokester... always trying to make us laugh!  She loves her daddy and would prefer Brad to hold her over anyone, but she's still fun and playful with me too.  Sierra has gotten lots of big sister time today.    Pics include Cadence's finding place, our donations for the orphanage, Cadence loves to walk, Sierra's nemesis - the squatty potty.