Today the town...tomorrow...Esther

So, today we went on a multicultural tour of the city of Nanning. We went to the minority museum, the night street market, and I got the room ready for a baby. Not real difficult to do since we don't have very many things. Not sure how I will react tomorrow...right now I'm nervous and excited. Our guide said tomorrow is a very sad day for the foster families, as they have grown to love their babies and have to say good-bye to them early in the morning. We will go to the Civil Affairs office in Nanning around 3:00 pm and just our family and the other couple will receive our girls in a room together. The other family's baby has lots of hair...so I don't think we will get confused:) We only bring our passports, our Travel Authorization paper, and a diaper bag. They basically hand the babies over to us and we go back to the hotel. Then on Tuesday we complete all the paperwork. We have 24 hours to get to know Esther and confirm she is the one before she is officially ours by Chinese law on Tuesday. It will be a long day for Esther as she is taken from her foster mommy, rides on a bus for 5 hours, and then gets handed over to we foreigners. Please pray for her throughout the day on Sunday...thanks:)

Robert under the totem at the Minority Museum (Guangxi Autonomous Region is home to 35 of the 56 minority people in China).


This is the dress of the Zhuang minority people. They make up over 60% of this region. It is possible that Esther would be from this minority group. Because they are a minority people and the majority are farmers, they are allowed two children.


As Dr. Seuss would say "How many, many feet do you meet?" Guess who's feet? These are chicken feet...a tasty morsel to be found here in China...yum!


This was the entrance to the Minority Museum. The Zhuang (pronounced Jong) people are famous for their metal drums. These are huge models of the drums. Most of the drums in the museum were hundreds of years old and would have metal frogs around the top of them. The Zhuang people worship the frog...I'm sure it's because they want to have a "hoppy" community:)


Here is one happy and one sweaty American tourist. Can you figure out who is who? The table was carved by a Zhuang family and would sit in the main room of the home. The oldest father and mother in the household are to sit left and right as we are sitting when the family meets to pray to Budda and the land god for good harvest and longevity and prosperity for the family. I'm not sure where the frogs come in since they worship them too.


This is the entrance to the night market. It is jammed packed with people in the historic section of the city. This is where the people go at night to eat a late night snack before they go to bed. Our guide said that the most crowded time there is 2am!!


This is another delicacy from the night street market. Want to make a guess? I'll give you a hint...has four legs...comes in many sizes...has a cat got your tongue? Man's best friend just had his tongue cut out and deep fried...it's dog tongue!!