Hands Full

Well, yesterday we had a really great day. We had a bunch of paperwork to do for Norah to become officially ours. And guess what… she is  Now officically Norah Catherine LanPing Sharp. It was pretty wild going into all of these buildings. We went to the Jiangxi Adoption Center, the place to get the babies visa’s and to the notary. While we were at the notary, the gentleman asked us, “Will you promise to never abandon her or mistreat her?” I wanted to say to him… Have you seen this face??? Of course our answer is no and we are falling more and more in love with her by the second.
After we got back from running around town al day we had a really nice lunch at a place near our hotel. Our guide Evelyn said it was a local favorite. It was yummy!!!!!!!!!!!!!Evelyn ordered a bunch of things for us and everything is served family style. This are placed on a table with a piece that spins around and everyone serves themselves. Very very good! Very local. Shannon ate a piece of spicy chicken and he immediately broke into a sweat. I am talking HOT… sweat running down his face, under his eyes, his nose. It was crazy. He loved it though! Then in the afternoon, we went to (drumroll please) WALMART! That’s right people, Walmart. This place is 3 stories. The second and third floor is actually Walmart. It was similar to ours, but there is not a huge selection of anything really. It was really neat to be able to say I have been to walmart in China 
So about Norah, because I know that you could all care less about what we are seeing and doing here  Norah Is really coming out of her shell. I can tell that her and Elias are going to give me a run for my money already! She makes the cutest facial expressions. She loves to copy what I am doing. We made kiss faces and she will just out of the blue just come at me with her lips puckered and plant one wherever those lips fall. She can blow raspberries, roll her tongue, clap for herself, and she makes this really funny face that looks like a pirate. But to top it all off… We were walking out of Walmart yesterday and I was holding her and she patted my chest and said “mama”. I almost took a stroke right there people.
We went back to the hotel and played a bit more on the bed with Shannon. We are having a bit of trouble right now because she is a momma’s girl. It is inevitable that it happens to one of us. They either attach for a short time to mom or dad. We need to start working on her with Shannon. She will be the only one feeding her right now so that she can know that he is a provider. Now I know that he is going to be really mad at me for typing this. I know that he isn’t going to read this so just don’t bring it up. He is an AMAZING dad. Now I know why I would like to have 5 or 6 kids… he is a natural. He will jus t get tears in his eyes looking at her or holding her finger. He will say, “I love her so much already”. He is very attentive to her and very very loving with her. He says to me, “She is just beautiful Pen! She is perfect!” We are both pretty smitten with her and we are so looking forward to you all meeting her. Oh, and that girl can EAT! Don’t let that small frame fool you. When I say she can eat, I mean it and you better just get out the way. She loves everything that she puts in her mouth. Especially watermelon and fruit. I will try to take some picks today of her chowing down. It is pretty funny! Have a good night y’all! It is Tuesday am here and looks like it is going to be a beautiful day!
**Elias, we saw the pics of you fishing and daddy was soooooo jealous because he says he never catches anything. He said when we get home you guys are going to go fishing and maybe you can teach him how to catch a shark! We LOVED the pictures and we know that you had a great time with Aunt Val! When we went to Wal-Mart today we got you some skittles. They are like regular skittles I guess but they are in a Chinese wrapper. We took Norah to the pool at the hotel last night and she LOVED it. She was splashing and laughing and everything. It was her first time in a pool and I was telling her that her GeGe was a really good swimmer and she can’t wait to see you do flips. We miss you so much buddy and we are counting the days like you are. It is really beautiful here, but nothing compares to waking up to your stinky breath in the morning. We love you and miss you like crazy cakes! XOXOXOXO