Day 2 with Esty

Yesterday we entered day 2. With older child adoption, you have no way to know what's going on behind those eyes...but she continues to smile, respond when I speak to her in Mandarin and go with the flow.

We had a wonderful breakfast in our hotel together. She chose very Chinese things to eat: corn on the cob, tomatoes, cucumbers, a bean steamed bun and yogurt. :)

This was the day for touring around the city. What a fun fun time we had!

We bundled up for a cold day and were so blessed to be taken to Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City with a fabulous guide, David. He learned English from an American and was so incredibly kind to our kids. He not only explained things to us in our language, but he took the time and effort to explain them all over again to Esty in Mandarin.

It was truly incredible to be at such a momentous place in history. When we walked onto the square, I got goosebumps. Seeing the army just made it all the more fabulous.

Take a look at this enormous image of Mao...it's almost 2 stories high!

It has been so fun to watch Oliver and Esty begin to bond. He enjoys pushing her in her wheelchair. She enjoys giggling.

We then entered the Forbidden City and learned TONS about emperors and how things rolled here for 3,000 years before Mao took over. It was sad to realize that Esty had not learned the order of dynasties as any typical Chinese student would...when you don't get to go to school, no one teaches you.

sigh.

This place as 9,999 rooms! If you chose to sleep in one room every night starting when you were born, it would take you 27 years to do it! There are some fascinating details about why 9's are important in China. 

The buildings went on and on and on. Oliver got overly cold so we rushed through the end of the tour.

Many rooms still had the thrones and beds and items from when emperors lived here. Esty couldn't see anything from her chair, so Daddy carried her around! She liked that!

Several times in history a VERY young emperor would come into power. As in like 3 years old! Seeing as a 3 year old would probably not make wise choices for a country, his reign was actually run by his mother. "Dragon Lady" is how she is referred to and it was her "Summer Palace" that we toured on Sunday before we got Esty. Her summer home was truly astounding. I won't go into all the details, but if I did...you'd be blown away. I do believe these emperors would NOT be the kind of people you'd like to share a cup of tea with! YIKES! But seriously, if you ever get a chance to see China, be sure and soak up some of this incredible culture! ESPECIALLY if you are adopting a Chinese child...you want them to know where they came from and their fabulously rich history!

After seeing these two sites, we went for some PULLED NOODLES!!!! (Oh, how we have missed them!)

And...after much coercing...Oliver finally tried some! :)

Then we went to Hutown. This is basically 200-300 year old homes near the center of the city. It's prime property because the meridian passes through it and this adds to its value. What's so fun is that to see it, you ride in rickshaws!

Probably the most fun we had was inside of a man's home...he had these two birds (forgive me, i forget their type) who could speak perfectly clear Mandarin in a man's voice. They made us laugh so hard! "Ni hao!" "Ni chi de ma?" "Ni hao ma?" and "Bye bye!" were all in their vocabulary. I can guarantee you that Esty and Oliver had never met a bird like them!

Aren't they sweet...bonding like this!

We've had plenty of time to just hang out together in our room as well. These two have done puzzles, taught each other how to make origami boats (Esty) and paper airplanes (Oliver).

Esty can crawl around like there's no tomorrow and she was hanging out in the sunshine in the window when behold, I appeared with the camera. She enjoyed making some fun faces. While she isn't saying much yet, her gigles and now her silly faces are beginning to show her fun personality!!

(And OH MY! I want to share: Esty is such a girlie girl! I was putting on my earrings for the day and she looked through my jewelry bag. "Give me one," she said. I was THRILLED to have the Adopt Shoppe necklace that has the verse from Esther 4:14 on it...which is why we have named her Esther! I gave it to her and she loved it! You can see she wore it all day long.)

Life is pretty good. 

We so appreciate all your prayers and ask for you to continue. Yesterday I explained that today (Wednesday) we will finalize her adoption. I asked if she wanted to do that. "Yes," she replied. "Do you want to go to America?" Yes again. I told her every Friday night for dinner I make pizza, did she still want to go to America? No answer. ;) (She won't touch pizza with a 10 foot pole!)

We have some prayer needs for her physical health too...would you please lift these up for us?

Thank you and blessings!!