On the Red Couch

Now that we're home, we can actually take some time and post pictures and more details about some of the things that we did while we were in China.

One of the big adoption moments in China is the group photo of the kids, taken on the red couch at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. I'd never heard of it until we got into the process, but, apparently, this is the big tradition - a moment that so many families who've adopted a child from China have in common.

Typically, the parents get their child a traditional Chinese style outfit (We got ours at Cute Baby, a shop on the north end of Shamian.), and all the kids get their picture taken together on one of these big velvet couches on the second floor of the hotel.

The day the pictures were taken, we were pleasently surprised at how well the kids reacted to having 20+ adults with cameras snapping photos of them. Getting a group of toddlers to sit still together on a sofa is hard enough, but add the chaos of all those flash bulbs and things could get dicey. Anyhow, the kids were all reasonably calm throughout.

This was the day that Wynn showed us how empathetic and kind she is by feeding her friend Jenna some Cheerios. Jenna was NOT digging the flashbulbs and chaos, so her mom put some Cheerios in front of her. Jenna kept crying, so Wynn picked up the cereal piece by piece and gently fed them to her. I was shocked that at no point did Wynn try to eat the cereal herself; we all know what an enthusiastic little eater she is. (Jenna and Wynn were the two kids adopted from Guangxi Provence; the other kids all came from farther north. They'd been together for over a week at this point, so they'd formed kind of special bond.)

Wynn's the one in the navy blue outfit who actually cooperated and kept her shoes on for the entire picture taking session. Good girl! ;-)

Ann