Baby Bird LuLu

As Trav said, we're staying at a great hotel called The China Hotel.  I love it!  When we came for Tyson we were astonished with how small it was compared to his home province's hotel.  This time we struck with how functional it is.  The refrigerator works (after they switched it out), the AC is cool & there are drawers!  (Okay, little rant here, but really, what were we supposed to do with 4 of us in one room without a single drawer?). 

Lucy is coming out of her shell more and more.  This morning she was almost tolerating my presence and by the afternoon seemed to be at peace with it.  Now I'm only talking about my presence.  If I dare touch her she has a cow.  On the bus ride back from Shamain Island she sat in Tyson's lap so the two of them could look out the window together.  Yup, we got pics. 

Praise the Lord!  The medical exam and shots went much better than expected.  When we went to Shamain Island the first thing we did was get her visa photo taken.  Next we went to the clinic where there were close to 100 families all trying to get their babies through this process.  It was mild mayhem. We zipped through the general procedures but then had to wait as we were the only family in our group whose baby had to get shots.  First they said 3, then 5 and after we had paid a few thousand RMB they changed their minds and only gave her 3. (Thank God for charge nurses).  They also gave us a refund for the unused immunizations.  This is really something that we wish could have waited until we got to the US.  Well, despite our worries, Lucy proved herself to be every bit of the trooper that her brother is.  She cried for a minute or two and then ripped off her apple-shaped band-aids and handed them to me as if to say 'get these out of my sight'. 

Of course we won't really know the state of Lucy's heart until we go to see her cardiologist, but the staff at the exam said that they couldn't hear any issues with her heart.  Woohoo! 

The day proved to be even more amazing as it went on.  Lucy really seems to be coming out of her shell.  She was walking around the room, playing, laughing and smiling.  Times of happiness far outweighed bouts of crying and mourning.  Of course she still loves her Baba but she is letting me into her heart a little at a time. 

LuLu, as she responds to, loves to snack.  I mean all day snacking.  If she could just pick up a diet coke habit I'll know we're one in the same.  She's more of a puffs and cheerios kind of girl but I still like her style.  Sometimes we call her 'baby bird' because when she wants sweets she opens her mouth wide and practically chirps 'ah ah ah'.  Her big eyes just complete the picture. 

Another one of the things that I enjoyed about China is different.  There is a McDonalds just a few hundred feet from our hotel.  In 2008 they had cucumbers instead of pickles and a spicy sauce on their burgers.  We went their tonight and it was just plain old McD's.  Bummer.  After dinner it was drizzling but warm so we went for a long walk.  It started by going up a main street lined with hotels, banks and shops.  To take a different way home we made a right into a neighborhood.  Just behind all of these very western shops was a cool neighborhood.  The back of the apartments faced us so we could see their tenant's laundry and plants and just normal life things.  There were men playing card games in the back of trucks, families eating & kids hanging out with their parents.  Although we were the only obvious westerners it didn't seem to cause as much of a ruckus as it does other places.  Tyson and I stopped for a few cookies.  Together they were only 2.5 RMB, less than 50 cents.  Baby bird didn't see me buy them, but when she saw the bag on my hand later in the trip she chirped out her plea for a few pieces.

Tomorrow we go back to the island for group photos, the infamous 'Red Couch' photos, church and lunch.  We'll keep you updated.  Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. 

MJ