Today is the half way mark of our time in China! We are more than ready to come home but must wait for Hope’s passport and visa. We love waking up to read all of your emails. Unfortunately for us, our email provider has decided to upgrade their system while we are in China!! We have been unable to send or receive emails from our Mediacom email account the past two days. That means of course that we are not getting the emails you have sent from our website or comments that you have posted on face book. We are using yahoo mail to stay in touch with family and to send the updates to Hope’s website.
The girls woke up today at 8:00 a.m. We had to hurry around for breakfast. We were scheduled to leave for the Safari Park at 9:30 a.m. so there was no time to linger. Tracy fed Hope a bowl of oatmeal this morning. We are so thankful she is starting to eat for us! We met Cordelia, our guide and John, our driver in the lobby of the hotel. John is a very good driver. He always opens the van doors for us. He assists all of us in getting in and out of the van. He always loads and unloads both of the strollers and anything else we bring along with us. Cordelia is a sweetheart and we really like her! She takes wonderful care of all of us. She helps with the girls, sometimes pushes their strollers, takes pictures for us, and tries to make sure we have everything we need! The ride to the Safari Park took about 45 minutes. This park is really beautiful and with the temperatures in the upper 70’s it made for a great day to see all the zoo animals. The girls had a wonderful time! They are starting to get used to all the stares and comments we receive wherever we go. They loved the bird show, riding the carousel and especially the 30 minute train ride to see all of the wild animals up close. One of the highlights for Hannah was feeding a real giraffe! This park is the home to at least a dozen panda bears right now. Six of these pandas were brought to the park after the earthquake in May of 2008. The panda is China’s national animal. This park boasts of having the only twin koala bears in the world. We actually had the opportunity to watch one of the twin koala bears eating. Koala bears normally sleep 20 hours a day. Cordelia told us this was a rarity and only the second time she had ever encountered the koala bears awake. She brings families to visit this park all the time. The girls did get a few mosquito bites while we were strolling around the park. Hannah and Holly usually have bad reactions to mosquito bites. Cordelia asked us if it would be okay for her to apply some mint oil to their mosquito bites. She uses this oil on her own three year old daughter’s mosquito bites. We let her apply the oil and it immediately relieved their itching. The bites disappeared within a few minutes! She told us she would help us purchase some of this oil to take back home with us. The Safari Park is a must see for anyone visiting Guangzhou!
After we left the park we headed back to the medical center to have Hope’s TB test read. The TB test is normal! Praise the Lord!! Had it been positive she would have been required to have a chest x-ray. A positive x-ray could have complicated her getting a visa to exit the country.
We then returned to our room for some relaxation! Hope has been eating better and feeling much better today! It is so nice to see her moving around more and trying to play. She is even starting to show some personality now. We have discovered she is very ticklish!!
We received an email announcing the arrival of our new grandson today!! Hope will come home to nine nieces and nephews, and soon to be ten!! Happy birthday baby Luke!!!
From China With Love,
Ann, Tracy, Hannah, Holly and Hope
