Baiyun Mountains

Dan
Today was another wait day. It seems that these are the days when we bond to our children the most. This morning the HOLT staff came to Skype with Big sister and Baby cakes. It is so rewarding for them to see the results of their hard work. They see the children at their worst and try to balance the worries fears and emotions of parents not to mention all the government bureaucracy that we do not see. These people are so amazing! Angels on earth. We can't help to have very tender feelings for them.

HEADS UP to new families. Starting in January all children two years and older will have to have a blood test for TB. The pharmaceutical company that made the TB test is no longer making it and government officials just made the ruling. Medical expenses will be passed on to families.

Today we walked through a food market and tried to guess at what we are looking at. We never see the raw form of these foods and it was fun to smell and guess. Of course there were plenty of unusual foods: lots of fish, rows of skinned ducks and one of the more disturbing was a pile of fried chicklets.

We ate at Subway!

We also visited the Baiyun Mountains which are beautifully wooded mountians just north of the city in Guangzhou.  They have a cable car that took us up and a long golf cart that took us down. At the top is a Buddah temple and a bird zoo. They have constructed a park with a next that expands several archers. We saw all kinds of birds and a bird show. Mei Mei seem to come alive as long as we kept moving.

Today, I think we fingered out a little more about our Mei Mei. Too much attention and stimulation causes her to shut down. The crowds and noises overload her. I find it interesting that the fluff we focus on, TV, fashion, music etc. brings no fulfillment but a quiet walk through the trees will open up the mind and heal. We would all be happier if we took more time and turned off our gadgets to ponder.

We ate dinner at Oggi's an Italian restaurant. My noodles were really good. Then we got turned around and wandered the city streets lost. Lots of eyes on us. Finally flagged down a taxi and made it back to the Hotel. Helen was pretty tired.

(Helen) We the Holt ladies came up we got to talk to them a little more about Mei Mei, they said that most likely (like Dan said) she is just getting to much  stimulation, we are trying to kill her with kindness. She is use to just being in her bed, it's her safe place. So today when we were not out and about she was in her crib. I went and sat by her so that she knew I was there, we were playing with her and threw a bunch of balloons in with her, we went to take them out and she made it known that she wanted them in there with her, so we left them in for a while. 

It was a much better day today, when we were out we saw her wave at a few people and she pointed at the birds and that was encouraging., small steps right? She still wants to be held a lot, probably because she can't walk, so my shoulder muscles are objecting... I get to build up my muscles again, I just hope that they don't just stop working like they have in the past. This too will pass... One more week and we'll be headed home and I can see my beautiful girls, I miss them!