March 4

Today was a very beautiful day…it was a perfect day to be at the zoo and take a dinner cruise, which is what we did. 

Addison and Tovin both enjoyed the zoo!  When we left for China, Addison had two things on her agenda not including the wonderful day she had at Hong Kong Disneyland.  Her two things were: #1. To come get her brother, #2. See a Panda.  Well, after today, her list is complete. 

The dinner cruise was on a riverboat to see the city of Guangzhou at night when the lights on the river brighten the night sky.  It’s obviously a tourist thing to do, as pretty much every building on the banks of the river light up at night.  A main attraction of the cruise is the Guangzhou TV and Sightseeing Tower, the second tallest structure in the world standing 600 meters (1968 feet) high.

Tovin had really slowed down with eating the past couple of days.  We were thinking that maybe he ate real well those first few days because he wasn’t sure what the heck was going on and subconsciously not knowing when his next meal might come.  Which we think resulted in him possibly being “full” for the first time in his life so that he wasn’t hungry the past couple of days.  However, he ate better yesterday once again and today was another good day.  We were happy that he has shown an appetite, and hope that it continues.

He has slowing starting to pick up a few words.  On the bus ride back from the cruise he was looking out the window at who knows what, and he started to wave and said, “bye-bye.”  It was pretty cool to hear.  He is saying Mama pretty regularly and picked Addison out of the big group photo of all the Lifeline adoption families by pointing at her and saying Jiejie (Gee Gee), which is “big sister” in Chinese.  We’ve been calling Addison Jiejie off and on since last week, but he hadn’t said it until today when he picked her out while looking at the group picture. 

We are patiently waiting for the final piece of paperwork to come through so that we can finalize everything here at the US Consulate, which won’t be ready until Wednesday.  Once that is complete we have to stay in Guangzhou for another 24 hours until we are allowed to leave, so here we are sitting and waiting once again.  Our trip to Shamian Island is scheduled for tomorrow, but that’s all we really have until the Consulate appointment on Wednesday.

Good night from China,

Jason, Jen, Addison, and Tovin

Jason is being a good sport, however once Addison got up on his shoulders and flipped her skirt on top of his head she said, "this way your head won't get sunburn".