A Birthday Celebration to remember (...and some minor paperwork snags)

Well Stephen woke up this morning one year older but as a proud father. Thankfully there were not more wrinkles than expected due to sleep deprivation!! Miss Gabriella slept from 20:30 until 08:00. The emotional stress of the last two days has taken its toll on her but since we did not have any appointments until 3pm we were able to take the morning at a slower and more relaxed pace - something we all enjoyed given the excitement of the last week.

Breakfast was enjoyed in the hotel restaurant and following some congee (porridge like cereal) and vegetables (Aunty Judith will be proud :)) Gabriella helped Stephen to open his cards.

Once the heavy rain ended we enjoyed a leisurely walk around Shamian Island - a beautiful area with lush walkways that are quite English/French colonial in style and adorned with a number of beautiful bronze statues. The photographs show two girls dancing - Gabriella and her mummy enjoyed their own style of dancing in the plaza. We even got a wee smile from Gabriella (not sure if she thought the experience was bizzare rather than funny!!)

After an enjoyable lunch Starbucks (marble cake was delicious) we headed back to the hotel since our guide Michael was picking us up at 3pm to take us to the police station. Don't panic - we have done nothing wrong just applying for Gabriella's passport! However the authorities have continued to mis-spell Caroline as Carloine and despite indicating this on Monday it now needs to be changed in time for the visit to the British Consulate on Monday 09 September 2013 in order to finalise the visa application that will allow us to bring Gabriella home. Michael assures us all is in hand albeit that we will have to undertake a third visit to the Civil Affairs office tomorrow afternoon.

Upon return to the hotel our guide surprised us with a beautiful cake and once the candles were lit we helped Stephen celebrate his birthday with a rendition of "Happy Birthday to You!"

We then met our new American acquaintances, a lovely couple from Washington DC who have also adopted a littel girl. They helped us finish off the rest of the cake in our hotel room but the biggest blessing of all was their daughter playing with Gabriella's toys. This helped to bring Gabriella out of her shell and for the first time she moved away from us both and sat with her toy box studying the toys and beginning to learn how to 'play'. We then all spontaneously agreed to go to the Chinese restaurant in the hotel and enjoyed a wonderful meal - Gabriella enjoyed her egg fried rice, beef pieces and shrimp pancakes!!

Well hope this updates you to our day's activities so off now to bed for some rest before our visit to Gabriella's orphanage tomorrow. Resting in His assurance that the paperwork will be finalised in time and enjoying Psalm 150, which was sent to us by our friend and neighbour today via our blog messages.