Dan-Dan is Lydia’s Chinese nickname.  It was her first words for us and has come to mean: “Mine!”  She is very cute and very two. Today she insisted on feeding herself, at all three meals. 

Anna wanted to share her thoughts on what she thinks of Lydia so far:

Well I think her emotions are a lot like mine and she has very very strong emotions too!! She also has happy, excited, upset, sad, cranky and when she is really hungry she is cranky and if you try to comfort her she’ll either scratch you pinch you really hard or push you hard away!!! She can also be really feisty!! She also laughs a lot but she cries a lot to. She says “Dou dou” and that means “No no” When she doesn't want you touching some thing!!

Today we found out that her second blood test came back negative (which is great).  The kind employees at the US consulate are allowing us to have a visa appointment on Friday. Hopefully they can process our visa in a day and all four of us can return to the US on Saturday.

It’s easy to talk about the exciting parts of adoption: gotcha day, the first smiles, the new experiences. But the reality, at least in China, is there are hours of boredom.

For example, right now we are watching “Tethered” on Discovery Channel.  For a few days we have looked forward to this show about two grown men chained to each other on a tropical island. 

We are glad to be in a hotel with Discovery Channel, National Geographic, HBO, Cinemax, CNN, and Star Sports. In Guizhou the Trade Point Hotel had several Chinese channels and BBC.  Here in Guangzhou we have watched Filthy Rich, Deadliest Catch, Gold Diggers, River Monsters, and King Fishers. Last night we let Anna watch Bourne Legacy with us.   Yes, we know. Not appropriate for a seven-year-old. But we wanted to watch it and she wasn’t ready for bed.  You can only spend so long in parks or museums.  The sightseeing rarely lasts more than a few hours.  

We hung out in our hotel room for much of the day as we waited for results from Lydia’s second blood test. The good news: it came back negative.  The bad news: Chris and Lydia might have to wait until next Monday (6 days from now) for our US Consulate appointment.  We will have a third blood test tomorrow. If that test also comes back negative, we might be able to have the consulate appointment on Friday and get a visa to fly out by Saturday. Please be praying that we could get her visa by Friday.

We did get to go on a night cruise on the Pearl River tonight. We got to boat past the Canton Tower, the fifth tallest building in the world.  Cool colors at night!

If you ever come to China to adopt a child, you will get to do some good things. But you will be bored too. Hope and pray for a hotel with the Discovery Channel so you too can watch Tethered, Yukon Men, and other quality programming.

Lydia’s personality emerges more and more each day.  She laughs more, she expresses more of her opinion (such as strongly preferring McDonalds fries over nuggets), she hits Anna more, and she squeals more as she chases us.  Her will shows us how strong it is.

Today we went to the YueXia Park next to our hotel. What a park! Full of the typical Chinese oddities: badmitton players with two rackets each, various bands of old men, and the requisite tai-chi, table tennis, and dancing,. The park has hills, lakes, flower gardens, and an amusement park.

We joined another family from our agency in the requisite visit to the Chen Clan Academy. The other family just adopted two girls who were about to age out of the adoption system at fourteen-years-old. This was their third visit to the Chen Clan Academy but we had a fun time there.

Before our tour we got some bad news.  We found out that there were problems with Lydia’s blood work. The medical office is doing further tests before they will send approval to the US Consulate. We had an appointment with the consulate for tomorrow but, without the medical approval, that appointment was cancelled. This means the timing of our return to Texas is up in the air at this point.

Please pray that we would get an okay from the medical office tomorrow, a consulate appointment for December 31, and Lydia’s visa by January 2.  If not, Monica and Anna might have to leave on our scheduled flight on Saturday, January 3, without Chris and Lydia.

We have spent enough time in China to be leary of zoos here.  People in Guangzhou bragged about the great Chimelong Safari/Zoo. We were skeptical.  But, boy, were we wrong.  We had an amazing day there.

Anna loved the elephant show. Elephants did lots of crazy stuff: one drew the Chinese character for dragon (long), two used their trunks to eat bananas and melons, they played basketball and soccer, and one walked on a barrel.

The zoo has over 250 white tigers. We got to see cubs playing and being fed by bottle.  We could have bought raw chicken to throw to the tigers for 15 yuan ($2.50).  We passed then and also on the bananas for the elephants, the branches for the giraffes, and the crackers for the monkeys.

The highlight of the day was the Giant Pandas.  Chimelong has 26 pandas.  This summer triplets were born.  Lydia’s face lit up with excitement throughout the day but especially at the pandas. “Xiong mao”, Chinese for panda, leaped off her lips (where did she learn that one?). Watching her face and hearing her squeals, made the day worth it.

After an hour subway ride, we finished the day with a Big Mac and apple pie at the McDonalds.

If you are in Guangzhou and have time, don’t miss Chimelong.  But pack your tennis shoes- the place is huge.    

I (Monica) have been able to watch something amazing these past few days.  I’ve watched the man I know to be a great dad prove himself to be an exceptional one.  Lydia has found his arms to be safe and strong.  In our new hotel room, we have a crib which she firmly refused, only consoled when snuggled by her daddy.  She whimpered during the night from between us in bed and he immediately scooped her up and calmed her down.  His back has been aching from holding her so much. 

I know that with time her attachment will even out and she will grow to accept me.  She was very attached to her foster mother so it’s natural she will take longer to like me.  She will eventually accept me feeding her (she has a few times already), but she will always have a special attachment to her daddy.  I’m so thankful for him.

Chris didn’t want me to post my thoughts above, but I insisted. Today was the medical exam required to get Lydia’s visa.  She was calm except for the blood test when they took her away (no parents allowed.)  We walked around the Guangzhou Opera House (designed by Zaha Hadid- whose office we walked passed daily in Clerkenwell/London.) The rest of the day involved relaxing in our room since it rained all day.  

We just landed in Guangzhou.  

We spent our last morning in Guiyang at the amusement park in HeBin Park.   The ferris wheel operators fired up their machine for us. The rickety ferris wheel provided a nice view of the city on our last morning there. Monica and Anna feigned fear of the ride collapsing in a heap of rust (see below).

Over the next few days we have a medical exam and consular appointment here. We are hoping to go on a safari/zoo trip and a Pearl RIver night cruise.  Stay posted for pictures . . .

I think having a little sister is fun because she laughs a lot and smiles a lot.

But  also she cries a lot especially when we come into our room.

 But I don't blame her because I don't like it either!!

 I like having a little sister also because I won’t be the only girl and I won’t be the youngest!!

It's my (Monica's) turn to share my thoughts.  Where to start?  I got to experience throwing up in a squatty potty today.  It's actually a very challenging feat.  We got mired in nasty traffic coming back from the monkey park. Even though we bailed out of our minivan to walk the rest of the way back to the hotel, it wasn't enough to calm my stomach because the varied odors of the sidewalk did nothing to help me.  

I miss my boys.  Only facetiming the boys once a day is not my ideal family life. 

I love chuckling at the ladies who wear awesome padded pajamas everywhere, but I hate the stares that we get. Chris even got asked to pose for a picture with a stranger at the park today.   

I miss Christmas at home.  Our hotel has the same annoying Christmas CD playing.  All. The . Time.  It's a child's version of 6 tunes and it plays over and over and over. I had dreams (nightmares?) which had "I Saw Three Ships" as the soundtrack as I wrestled with sleep the other night.  Almost all the hotels and many restaurants have some sort of Christmas decoration out.  Truly bizarre choices in some shop windows.  Mannequins wearing scary Santa masks, fairy statues sitting on gingerbread houses surrounded by nasty fake snow.  We've found a few refuges- the Starbucks within walking distance plays classic Christmas music and we found a Christian coffee house (Highlands Coffee) that played decent Christmas carols.  Otherwise, it just makes me miss the real thing.  We will miss attending a church service with our church family to celebrate the real meaning of the season.

Lydia is a daddy's girl, and I think I'm ok with it.  I know she will warm to me eventually. I even guessed this would happen since she was so close to her foster mother.  She'll let me hold her but she only puts her arms up for Chris at this point.  We are thankful that she understands Mandarin (and that we speak it!)  


We are thrilled to be here and so thankful to have our little girl in our arms.  We love China, but not all China all the time.  


Here are some pictures from our trip to Qian Long Park (aka Monkey Park.)  A research institute release a few monkeys 40 years ago, and now they rule the mountain.

I think that the traffic is terrible and it made my tummy feel icky in the car.  I also think that when we went to the monkey park it was kind of cool but the monkeys were free and they could jump on you when ever they would like!!!!!!

 But I wish there was really, really cold water like there is in North America.

I also hate the smoking because it stinks and they do it in my face.

 When we came to Guying are room was tiny and Lydia hates it and when we come into tiny room she starts crying.

When we were in Beijing we went to the Great Wall of China and the view was amazing!!  We also went to an acrobat show and they did all sorts of cool stuff!! One of the stunts was 8 motorcycles with people on it were in this globe thing and they were spinning in it!!!  Another stunt was there were bikes and there was these women on them and at the last part there was this 1 lady and she was riding a bike and then there were like 11 other girls that got on top of her and she was still riding that bike!!!