Zoo today

We had a beautiful day for visiting the zoo today, and we had the place almost to ourselves. How strange to be in China without thousands of people bustling by! We were able to see almost all of the animals, including some amazing elephants, which Kayla would have loved, and one lonely, old panda bear. The biggest hit with the girls were the pygmy goats who flocked toward us to be fed leaves.

After the zoo, we lunched at the famous noodle shop where one can watch them make noodles. The food was very good and inexpensive, too.

Mayana hit a low spot this afternoon after returning from the zoo. I think it partly related to a question she asked Helen: "When I go to America with my mommy and daddy, will you be coming with me, too?" She didn't like the answer. She is quite fond of Helen, naturally, and to say good-bye will be difficult. Helen assures us that Mayana will do fine, since she has an easy-going and out-going personality. The low time lasted a couple of hours. I gave her photos to look through from the orphanage, and that seemed to perk her up.

Mayana started speaking a few words in English today. Without prompting she said, "Thank you" to the hotel staff. And later, when I was drawing a picture, she pointed to it and told me, "Very, very good!" I told her, "Very, very good English!"

By this evening Mayana was back to her cheerful self and even made some very positive actions toward her Daddy.

We are very happy with how everything is going, and we are thankful for so many things. We are enjoying our hotel, our food, our tours, other families whom we have met, and the fabulous weather. But mostly we are enjoying getting to know our new daughter a little bit more each day.

To be honest, there are a lot of emotional ups and downs on this journey, even to the point of thinking "why are we doing this?" But when the roller-coaster day is done, and we tuck two adorable cutie-pies into bed, there is nothing left but a tired smile of joy at the whole experience, and a longing to share our new found joy with our family and friends back home.

Love to you all