In defiance of the clothing police!

Oh yeah…they exist…they are out there lurking behind every park bench waiting to let you know what’s wrong with your daughter’s outfit. They will also let you know what’s wrong with your outfit too! I’d never heard that one before, but we both got in trouble for short sleeves more than once. We had no problems with the CP in Nanning. But we were also near a hotel that often hosts international adoption. Here in Guilin where it’s not as common to see “the babies” the CP are out in full force! The majority of the folk who approached us were very sweet and had nothing to say about how any of us were dressed. They asked us how old Lydia was, how long we had her, what country we were from, etc. They would complement her looks a lot. Apparently fair skin is considered the height of beautiful so Lydia by Chinese standards is quite the looker as her skin is actually paler than Russell’s and almost as pale as mine. By my standards she’s the most beautiful person in the world so it was gratifying to hear so many people agree with me. The few who did have something to say mostly said her sleeves are too short and would try to pull them down a bit and that was that. They would then give us a thumbs up and depart smiling. In their defense today has been the coolest day we’ve had here being in the mid 70’s. In my defense, it’s the mid 70s. But I was understanding and wrapped her arms in a blanket and thanked them for their advice. Only one clothing police officer has gotten on my nerves and that is the clothing commissioner herself, Lina our coordinator. Lina is great and mostly it’s annoying because she is the only clothing police officer who can come to my hotel room at any hour she likes and let us know her opinion. In Nanning our room was cold all the time. We actually shut the AC off and it was still cold in there. We dressed Lydia appropriately and blanketed her all the time, but still Lina about busted a gut at us 2-3 times over the temperature of our room. She even checked our thermostat to make sure we were telling the truth. A line crossing I personally did not appreciate and put Lina in my poor graces for a time as I hate being accused of lying. So now here we are in Guilin, where are air conditioner does not work at all and it’s in the 80’s in our room and all of us keep a constant glaze of sweat on our brow...openly defying the clothing police!