Guangzhou Zoo and he knows his name!!

Monday, September 21

Today, we went to the Guangzhou Zoo.
The zoo itself is more like zoos used to be in the US. The animals are for the most part in concrete cages. We were there in the morning, so it wasn't extremely hot. The funny thing about the zoo was an exhibit of Pomeranian. Yes, the dogs.
They had an exhibit featuring Pomeranian dogs. We thought that was quite funny. I guess they are rare in China? Anyway, Abbey had been talking about seeing a panda, and today she did.

Abbey's panda
Abbey, her friend Tiger, and Tiger's new sister, Wynter

Elijah not too impressed with the zoo
Two little joeys

We then went to a tea house. They shared some of the tea traditions of China, and we tasted several types of teas. The most wonderful things was that it was well air conditioned in there!Tea demonstration

Next, we headed to Shamain Island for lunch, shopping and checking the TB tests of a couple of our babies.(They were negative). Then it was back to the room. The hours of 4-8pm are the longest. We go swimming, and try to amuse ourselves. We walked to the park and ended up at Starbucks. It took a while for us to get them to understand that we wanted get Abbey a small cup of whip cream, but I think they finally got the idea.

Abbey had her first ice cream cone today. She's had ice cream before, but never in a cone.

One exciting thing: Elijah knows his name. Several times today, I'd call his name and he'd turn around and come to me. About his name, we had told several people that we were going to call him Eli, but we've changed our minds. He looks like an Elijah, and before John had said we should adopt, I was reading the Bible, and I really felt that God was saying he had a boy for us and his name was to be Elijah. So, we are going to call him Elijah.

Tonight, we found out that our boy has a temper. He fell asleep at 4:30 this afternoon. So, he didn't want to go to sleep tonight. John held him and wouldn't let him down to play, and he really pitched a fit. He finally did go to sleep. (He needs to learn we will win.) If all goes as it has, he will wake up screaming at 1 am. I'll put him in bed with us, and he'll sleep the rest of the night. I'm a little worried about how things will work when we are home. But for now, we are in survival mode.

Today, I was reflecting about how things have gone. I really feel that the Lord has gone before us. We have our moments of potential hair pulling out, "Calgon take me away" moments, but most of the time the kids are a joy.

Big sister at work!

I was reading the Bible tonight, and these verses struck accord with me:

Psalm 66:16-20

Come and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what he he has done for me. I cried out to him with my mouth; his praise was on my tongue. If I had cherished sin in my heart, the Lord would not have listened; but God has surely listened and heard my voice in prayer. Praise be to God, who has not rejected my prayer or withheld his love from me!

I pray that I will always be able to, and recognize the opportunities to tell what God has done for me!