Lily Kay - Day 10

Wow, we had a busy, good day! After breakfast, we took the girls to the “Swan Room” to kill some time before we met the rest of our group for pictures. The Swan Room is a playroom on the 1st floor of the White Swan furnished by Mattel. It is really geared for children younger than our girls, but we just needed some space to run and tumble around! I took lots of pictures, but none of them turned out great because the girls (and Jas) were always moving too fast!



After our picture-taking session, the four of us headed out to a very productive shopping session here on Shamian Island. I only need to buy 2 more presents for Zibing, and one more for Daniel, and then we're done!


I never thought I'd say this, but we are sick of eating out! We hardly ever eat out at home, so it's a treat – but when you have to do it for every meal, it gets old quick! Check out the picture of our dessert from supper tonight: a bee-you-ti-ful banana split! They called it “Three-colour ice cream” on the menu...but they couldn't fool us! I L.O.V.E. Banana splits! Now look closer...do you see the black things under the ice cream??? We thought they might be coffee beans, for an interesting touch...or better yet, chocolate candies. Nope.


Kidney Beans


I'm not even joking. A big thank-you to Jas for being brave enough to find out for us! WHAT is up with that? Who does that taste good to??? Well, not our family, I can tell you that! They might have laughed at our dish full of beans and a little melted ice cream that we left behind, but they can keep their beans!


Jas was very brave today. He must have felt pumped after trying the kidney beans in our dessert – so he kept on going, and (drumroll please).......got a haircut! He figured they couldn't mess up his hair too bad!


One Bad-Good Thing that happened today:
Zibing hurt herself. Not good in and of itself. But she let me comfort her – that is the good part! Up until today, she has been so tough – not crying when any other child would at bumps and scrapes. Elisabeth has even noticed it and commented: “Lily Kay is tough!” This is very common for children who have been institutionalized – and we can only assume it stems from not having anyone to comfort you when you get hurt. You lose the motivation to cry. So I was very glad for the opportunity to hold her and rock her while she cried, glad that she knew she had someone now that would comfort her when she got hurt. She cried for 5 or 10 minutes, and I just prayed over her that the Lord would, in His miraculous ways, let us make up for the all the times over the past 4 years when Zibing got hurt and had no one to comfort her. Thank you, Lord, that we get to comfort her now. We're so humbled that You've chosen us to parent this precious child. Amen

Inside the beautiful White Swan hotel

Trying to pose like Jie Jie

Check out Zibing's funny face:

Wrestling in the Swan Room

The 7 precious children who now have Forever Families!

All the members of the families

Look at the beautifully decorated trees behind us - ready for Spring Festival with red envelopes

Zibing now thinks its funny to close her eyes for pictures

Our yummy "Three-colour ice cream"

Our appetizer - like fishy pork rinds, NOT as good as it sounds

Our fearless leader

Two very silly girls