Panda Bears

Our view at breakfast

On our way to see the panda bears

Heading into the Giant Panda Center

Worth the unbearable heat to see these magnificent creatures

Our family with the panda bears

After a long, HOT, day at the safar park we are heading to the pool. The girls with their White Swan Barbies - Mama Barbie adopts a baby from China

Susi loves swimming! The pool was so nice to cool down.

On our way back to our room after swimming

Yesterday we went to the safari park and saw many animals but the highlight was the panda bears and koalas. It was so miserably hot! About 150 degrees and 250% humidity! I have never sweated so much in my life, it was all worth it though to see the pandas. The girls had a great time. I am feeling better but not totally well yet. After the park we went to Mcdonalds for lunch. Words can't express the busyness at Mcdondalds. The amount of people in one place is just mind boggling! I couldn't take a picture because we couldn't hardly move let alone get a camera out to take pictures. Today Lee and Alyx went to a Buddhist temple and a museum while the girls and I stayed back and played at the hotel. We had a fun time in the Swan room (playroom). Now we are off the have Susi's tb results checked and go to lunch.

Guangzhou

Sweet Sisters

Best Friends

Silly Girls

Medical Clinic

Susi at her medical exam, she was a trooper

We are staying on a beautiful island, it is hot though, so everyone got fans

We made is safely to Guangzhou. Our hotel is lovely and the island is wonderful. We walked to the clinic this morning for Susi's medical exam, it was all good. I, mommy, have been sick all day, so it has been a hard day. Plus we didn't get in until midnight last night and we slept a short while before getting up for the day. Tomorrow, I am praying I am well enough to go the safari park and pearl factory. Please pray no one else gets sick.

Visit to Si Ping

Best Big Sisters

Graci was having fun taking pictures out our hotel window

Susi and Graci having fun on the slide at the KFC

Snoozing on the 2.5 hour drive to Siping

Siping Social Welfare Institute -Baby/Toddler room

Susi with one of the ayis that remembers her from when she was in the orphanage in 2009

Siping SWI baby/toddler room

Siping Center - where Susi spent the majority of her baby and toddler years

Siping Center

Siping Center

Siping Center

Siping Center

Our family with one of the nannies at the Siping center and the assistant director to the Siping orphanage

After our visit to the orphanage and center we went out to lunch and Susi taught us how to use chopsticks. She is really good!

Susi's finding place -The People's Republic Hospital lobby

In front of the orphanage

We have just had a wonderful day full of surprises and many blessings. We drove to the city of Siping, where Susi was born and found. It is about 2.5 hours from Changchun, the capitol of Jilin province. First we visited the orphanage where Susi was placed after her original surgery and recovery. One of the nannies remembered her and called her by name. We spent some time holding and playing with the babies and toddlers. We were hoping to spend more time at the orphanage and get to play with the older kids but there was another event going on and that was not possible. After our visit to the orphanage we went to the Siping Center. A wonderful foundation that cares for high risk kids that need to be much more stable before returning to the orphanage or being adopted. Susi spent most of her babyhood and toddler years at the Siping Center. It was such a blessing to take her to visit, they not only totally know her but they had tons of pics of her as a baby. I was able to download them and she will have a whole baby album! This is unheard of with my younger kids. I have so few pics of them before they were adopted. But Susi will have pictures, memories told to her, and people that have known here since she was just days old. It is so awesome! I can't wait to bring her back to visit when she is older. After the center, the assistant orphanage director took us out for lunch. We ate yummy Chinese food, dumplings and various other delicious entrees. This tasted especially good because we have been on our own for food for the past few days, that means we eat KFC and Pizza Hut. If I don't have someone to help me order, I stick with what I know. After lunch we went to the hospital where Susi was found just days old, back in 2006. When we walked in, the nurses ran right up to us to see if we needed help. Then our guide explained why we were there and taking pictures in the emergency room lobby. As usual, we caused a spectacle and everyone was staring and laughing at us. We are getting used to it though and now find it kind of fun to be the entertainment. It has been a big adjustment for Graci, she is trying so hard to take things in stride and be flexible. But everyone keeps talking to her in Chinese because they assume she understands. She keeps looking at me and asking what they are saying to her, so I tell her to talk to them in English and they just start cracking up. So she shrugs her shoulders and moves on. She is such a trooper! She has even handled people touching her, which is very common here. People will squeeze her cheeks or pet her head or face. The first time it happened I thought she was going to freak out but instead she looked at me and said "why is that man petting my face?" LOL!

She Has The Sweetest Voice and We Heard It!!!

Susi loves pizza

Girl time-nail painting

It was so nice, we had a beautiful cool rain and the girls
were able to use their umbrellas and Alyx wear her
trenchcoat.

The girls pass out as soon as their
heads hit the pillow!

Susi loves to get her hair done!

Pretty girl!

Beautiful girls and Best sisters!

Susi being a silly girl and cracking us up-
and herself for that matter!

Mommy and Graci and Susi

Susi saying "Baba"

It is naptime -she doesn't look
tired but she will be out in 3 minutes.


After a very quiet 4 days, Susi nodded and spoke her first words to us. We were at KFC for lunch and there is a small corner with a slide in it for the kids to play on. Graci ran right over and started playing. I asked Susi if she wanted to play and for the first time she answered me with an enthusiastic nod of her head, YES! So we took her to slide and after that she turned into a whole new girl. She was cracking herself up by making noises at us and blowing her straw at us. Then she started making a barking noise at us and couldn't even breathe she was giggling so hard. On our walk back to the hotel she continued acting silly and laughing so we tried to get her to say some words to us. There was these topiary rabbits in the planters and Graci was saying, "rabbit, rabbit" then Susi repeated and again was laughing so hard. We came back to our room and kept trying to get her say "mama and baba". She just kept saying "rabbit" and laughing. Then all of sudden she said it, "MAMA" , "BABA"!!!! What a precious sound to my ears!

Challenges Amongst the Blessings

Susi with her baby buddy both being adopted today!
Mommy and Susi with Jie Jie Zhou

Our family in front of the civil affairs office

At the civil affairs office signing the adoption papers

Our girls in China!

We left Beijing yesterday and came to Changchun in the Jilin Province. It is always challenging to travel with little ones but some times are harder than others. I ask, if your reading this, to please pray as my stamina is diminishing. The girls are doing great and so is Alyx, we have just had some unforeseen troubles and some to be expected. On our way from the airport to our hotel yesterday the van broke down. So what was to be an hour drive turned into a 4 hour wait/drive. We waited on the side of the road for 3.5 hours and then loaded into a new van and finished heading to the hotel. I would show you all the lovely pictures that I took of our family and the girls while we sat on the side of the road but I can't. By the time we got to the hotel my camera had disappeared. Gone. Vanished. No where to be found. Our brand new camera we bought for the trip and with all our sd cards and video of Susi's gotcha day. Needless to say I have cried out to God. I am heartbroken to have lost it. But, there is nothing I can do about it now. We spent today at the civil affairs office signing the adoption papers. And then at the notary's office signing more papers. So many challenges in international adoption but so many blessings. Today, my beautiful girl woke up, sat up and smiled at me when I said good morning to her. This is the first time she woke up and smiled. The first time she woke up with us, she screamed. The second time, she stared blankly at us, and now today a beautiful smile. She is still not speaking but laughs a lot when tickled and when she is throwing water on daddy. In time we will hear her sweet voice. When we were at the civil affairs office today there was another family there who was adopting a son from Susi's original orphanage. Come to find out, this little boy was the same little boy that was advocated for and sent from the orphanage with Susi back when they were both infants. They were sent together for treatment of their clubfoot and his was repaired and Susi's wasn't. So he was sent back to the orphanage and Susi was sen to Shepherd's Field. Now here they both were in the same room again with their FAMILIES! God is so good and amazing, I stand in awe! I am challenged, no doubt about it, but I wouldn't change a thing and miss all these beautiful moments.