Latest Update - Monday, May 21

We're truly sorry for the long delay in updates. Our laptop died on us Thursday evening. It tries to boot into windows, then we get the dreaded "blue screen of death". It's funny, the error message says that Windows was prevented from loading to prevent harm to the computer. If you continue to get this message, try disabling anti-virus, blah, blah, blah. Hard for me to disable anything when I can't even get to it. Oh well. It is very distressing. We had ALL of the photos that we had taken up until Thursday downloaded to the laptop. They are the only copies. I even thought to myself earlier that day that "maybe I should back these up to CD in case something happens". Ahhh. The power of hindsight!! Should have listened to my inner voice. I hope they are still there. I've got a chance to see if I can get to them this evening. As soon as I get the laptop up and running (if I get it running) I will post a ton of pictures.

Anyway. Everything is going very well. Mommy and baby are doing very well. We did some sightseeing during our last days in Wuhan. Saturday we flew to Guangzhou. It was only a 1.5 hour flight. Grace did extremely well (almost) during the flight. About half the way through the flight, Charlene thought she smelled something. Sure enough. Poopy diaper. I was on the aisle seat, so yours truly, daddy, had the task of taking care of my second solo poopy diaper in the teeny tiny bathroom. Poor Grace. I tried to be as careful as I could, but when I put her down, her head was under the towel dispenser. She didn't seem to care for something hanging over her face. So I picked her up to turn her around, bumped her head on the towel dispenser. That started the crying. When I went to put her down, she threw herself backwards and arched her back just as I was about to lay her down. So she hit her head again. She was very MAD this time and I hadn't even got her pants off of her. She was screaming bloody murder. I finally got her cleaned up, and it was messy. Front to back and side to side messy. I don't understand how it stayed in the diaper with all her thrashing around. She wouldn't even let me put her pants back on her, so I took her back to mommy and let her hold her while I slipped her pants on. I was pretty embarassed coming out of the bathroom. The flight attendants back there probably thought I was trying to kill my kid. She survived and all seemed to be forgiven after a few minutes.

We've been in Guangzhou for a few days now. It's very nice here. One of the co-ordinators that joined up with us here said that it had been very hot here. It rained before we flew in and it's been the most pleasant, if damp, since we've been in China. The area where we are has very European style buildings. We're in a deluxe hotel with a great view overlooking a huge river. Lots of boat traffic.

Grace had her visa photo taken yesterday and today (Monday) she got a physical exam. She's been absolutely the best baby. The only time she fusses is when it's time to eat, get a diaper change (when it's wet, when it's dirty she likes for us to find it out on our own), or when it's nap time. This afternoon, we are going shopping with our group. We've rented a bus that's supposed to take us to a really good shopping area.

Well, with any luck, we'll have photos this evening or tomorrow. Cross you fingers. Catch you later.