Yun tai Garden

Hi Everyone,

We seem to be approaching a routine with feedings and nap time. It isn't quite how the Nannies described her schedule, but we are figuring it out. Dong Dong Josie is napping happily on the bed while I write this.

We had a nice morning today. As usually we had breakfast at the hotel buffet. It is included with the room and is quite the feast! You name they have it-- all the usual American stuff and typical Chinese morning food as well: noodles, steamed tomatoes, dumplings, rice porridge, chicken patties, steamed fish. . . .

After breakfast our group visited the Yun tai Garden-- which is a very beautiful place with lots of flowers, waterfalls, streams, totem poles, and rock gardens.

This is the waterfall and stairway as you enter the park. In front is one the dads in our group, Steve Jackson. To the left is another family in our group, Clay, Jenna, and Adrian.

Wim and I decided to try positioning Dong dong Josie a little differently today-- I had her facing outward in the carrier so she had to look at people-- especially

daddy.

Me and Dong dong Josie with a mouse statue at the park-- This is the year of the rat-- but mice are cuter.

Reena and Dong Dong Josie with Jenna and her new daughter, Caroline.

Shortly after we arrived at the garden-- it was too hot to keep her in the carrier, so I took her out and just carried her on my hip. It is a good thing I was hitting the gym so hard the last couple months before this trip!

Dong Dong Josie enjoyed trying to take a few steps in her new squeaky shoes (they squeak when she walks-- Phoebe is going to LOVE them!). She still needs some help walking-- I am hoping to have her up and running by the time we fly home.

This is us with our guide, Veronica. She is a lovely young woman who is extremely organized and she has a pleasant demeanor. I cannot imagine dealing with so many adoptive families, all the different personalities, the babies and all they have been through, making all the appointments, getting everyone there, getting the paperwork completed and there etc. She is amazing! We are very grateful and pleased to have her for our guide.

In this picture she is telling us that we will likely be approached by Chinese people while at the garden who are curious about why we are white and have Asian babies. She explains that some people may want to take pictures of us and/or with us. She is passing out to all of us a note card that we can were around our neck that explains we have adopted our daughter, her name, her birthdate, and her orphanage (each card is specific to each little girl in the group). This proved to be very helpful as you will see in some later pictures.

Dong dong Josie is doing much better today in terms of looking at people and looking at Daddy. He is able to talk to her and scoot in kinda close without her crying.

She enjoyed the garden very much and loved the flowers. I am not sure if she has ever seen flowers before or smelled them, but she was smelling them today. I showed her how to sniff the scent and then she did it and got a really big smile on her face.

Below are some random shots of the garden. We only spent a couple of hours here-- you could easily spend twice that amount of time. The tours we are now going on are kept short and are in the morning because we are catering to our babies' schedules and they all like to nap in the afternoon.

A few of the families brought some of their children with them on the trip. Dong dong Josie was very interested in watching them run around the rocks in a little cave area at the gardens.

The little girl in the pink pants whose back is to the camera was adopted into her family from China about 4 years ago. She is very happy to now have a little sister, also adopted from China. She said she has been waiting for her sister as long as she can remember.

This was a really good day for Dong dong Josie. She is a very happy girl and her personality keeps shining newer and brighter with each day.

Reena and Dong Dong Josie with a nice Chinese Lady who told us that our daughter is very beautiful and gave us a thumbs up.

One part of the day she didn't care for was all the old Chinese ladies who kept approaching us to take her thumb out of her mouth. This has been a common occurrence. A younger lady in one of the shops explained to me that in Chinese culture the older generation thinks a baby sucking their thumb or finger is bad for their Chi. This is because your hands get dirty, fingernails get dirty, you put them in your mouth and suck out the dirt and it will make your Chi unhealthy.

As annoying as this is, at least it is out of care and concern. Although, I don't think Dong Dong Josie cares about why they are doing it-- she simply wants them to leave her alone and was at the point of starting to slap away at people by the end of the morning. Mostly she was doing this to me because I would try to gently take her thumb out of her mouth when we were approaching or being approached by old ladies so they would leave her alone.

Reena and Dong Dong Josie surrounded by Chinese ladies. The read the card that Veronica gave us and most gave us the thumbs up. The lady to the left in the purple shirt and brown sweater was not happy with the thumb sucking and kept pulling on Josie's arm to take her thumb out of her mouth.

She told me to tell Josie, "Boo Yao!" when she sucks on it. This means "don't" and/or "no" in Mandarin.

On the bus ride home Dong Dong Josie let Wim give her some small strokes with his finger without giving a fuss. The last picture is a bit blurry, but very important. It shows that Wim is finally able to feed her a couple of bites.

Slowly, she is starting to warm to him. I think she is figuring out that he at least will let her suck her thumb in peace!