a day in the mountains of China!

Today was beautiful, and 75 in China!!! We are in for a HUGE temperature shock when we come home!! But, we are so excited to come home and see everyone, we miss all of you SO SO SO MUCH!!! I can’t tell you how much we appreciate all your notes and comments…makes us feel so encouraged and not so very far away!

Today we joined another big group of adopting parents who we have become friends with while here in China! We all went to “Baiyun Mountain” today…which means White cloud mountain in Chinese. It was beyond beautiful. The entrance to the park was quite an experience. Many older Chinese people were doing aerobics, practicing dancing, and doing Tai-Chi. Also, many people were doing Hacky Sacs. The hacky Sacs here are very different than hacky sacs at home. They almost look like badmitten birdies, except they have feathers on them. Its a very fun sport! I love seeing this side of China!

We got to the top of the mountain by riding a “gondola” or a cable car. It was Isabella’s and Tahlia’s first time…and it was SO VERY HIGH UP! Tahlia loved pointing to all the trees! Her absolutely favorite part was “bird valley” where you walk through a HUGE bird sanctuary filled with exotic birds…she got such a kick out of seeing them fly over her head!! My favorite was the white peacocks! We then saw a bird show where the birds did all sorts of tricks…they rode scooters, played basketball and even rode a skateboard. And, if we held money in the air, they were trained to come sit on your arm and take your money!! LOL Ethan, Helaina and Ashy: you would have LOVED IT!!! We took lots of pics of their tricks!! Tahlia was mesmerized by it and couldn’t get enough of it! She and Isabella got their pics taken while Isabella held a beautiful parrot! We then finished our day on the island with lunch at Lucy’s! Lucy’s has all american food! Isabella and I enjoyed grilled cheeses and french fries (yes, we were craving them) and Brian got a big ol’ american cheeseburger!! And, we discovered that our little lady LOVES to feed herself! Not sure why we hadn’t figured that our till now…but, she is one independent little thing! I guess she learned to feed herself in the orphanage…cause she’s a pro! In fact, we have been discovering little things here and there that are a result of being in an orphanage… For instance, when she gets hurt…she doesn’t stop to cry or look for comfort….its as if it didn’t happen at all. 🙁 So, when we see her get hurt or bump her head or something…we just douse and overwhelm her with kisses and comfort so she realizes that part of being in a family is about receiving comfort and love when we hurt. She knows how to dress herself…she will try and put her own jacket on, her own socks on. She will play with her fingers a lot…these were her only toys when in a crib at night…so, she has a habit of fiddling with them. Each new behavior that we discover that could possibly point back to having lived in an orphanage makes us stop in that moment, and thank God that she is no longer an orphan, that she is ours forever….and that there in “one less” in the world! We can’t wait to bring her home.
Here’s today’s photo album!!

Tahlia day 9

And here is a video of some belly giggles!!!

And here is the video of Tahlia feeding herself!