China Day 7

Last night we had food poisoning from Pizza Hut...I know I know why Pizza Hut in China?  We are just a bit over the Chinese food and were craving cheese.  Bad idea.  In addition to the tummy issues, Olivia had an hour or so of intense crying where I could do nothing to soothe her.  Luckily this was after I was sick.  She finally fell back asleep about 10:30 and we all slept until 6:30 which has been a record for length of sleep from Brad and I.  I think we are getting used to the time change just in time to come home.

We were tired this morning from our long night and debated skipping out on the tour that was planned.  But, because we are starting to get homesick we thought it would be good to get out of the room.  We ended up skipping breakfast and having a long skype session with the kids.  They got to watch Olivia run around the room and thought she was so cute.  She tried feeding them her bottle and snacks. 

The tour for the day was to a Buddhist Temple called Six Banyan Temple and to a local Garden.  The Buhdistt emple was very interesting and we enjoyed learning about some of the Chinese culture.  We were offered a blessing for Olivia but, politely declined.  We had a few ladies stop our guide to ask why we were with a Chinese baby.  She explained that we had adopted her (apparently most Chinese people are not aware of adoption).  The ladies looked at us and bowed and told us "Thank you" in Chinese.  If only they knew that we were the ones blessed by this adoption. 

On the way to the Gardens we enjoyed hearing the guide's perspective on the one child policy and how is is affecting China and adoptions in general.  Once we got to the garden we were pleasantly surprised to see it was the season for tulips here and it was decorated in a Dutch theme.  Perfect pictures to send home to
Oma. 

 Someone snoozed through the Gardens

We are learning more and more about our baby girl each day.  Today we learned about her naughty side.  She likes to run up to the electric sockets, put her finger near them, look at us and laugh when we tell her "no".  She is saying more and more words each day.  Today she said over and over "uhhm ahh" for food and drink when she wanted it.  She is trying to say Olivia.  It sounds like "ay yah".  She is becoming more and more independent.  She wandered the room and even let me out of sight on a few occasions.  She also threw a fit when I wouldn't let her use the spoon to feed herself rice cereal. 
Bedtime is usually really hard for Olivia.  She cries a lot and resists falling asleep.  Tonight she fell fast asleep in my arms with no resistance.  When I laid her in the crib she didn't even stir.  She usually ends up in our bed in the middle of the night which we don't mind but, tonight's bed time was great progress that she is feeling more and more secure.

 Serious face

 Walking with daddy

Today we have a specific prayer request.  We are both getting very anxious to be home with our babies, our home, friends and routine.  We ask for prayer as we make it through these last few days away.  We are going into day 4 of no adoption related appointments and it's getting hard.