One full week with Miss Olivia

Today marks one week since we first laid eyes on our little girl. It's like her birth....to us anyway. We are getting to know her ins and outs, her moods, her likes and dislikes, her faces, and her laugh just the same as any child born to us. The transformation in just one week has been beyond anything I could have imagined. For the last couple days, she can't hug Jay and I enough. She tag teams between the two of us, back and forth...lap to lap, hugging us both with both arms and head laid on our shoulder. It's almost like she's saying "I'm so glad you're finally here to get me".

To celebrate this anniversary, we took her (along with the other couple) to the Safari Zoo.

It was awesome! It was unlike any zoo we've ever been too and ranked right up there with Disney's Animal Kingdom. Our guide helped us hire our driver to bring us the 45 minute drive there and wait while we spent 5 hours in the park. It cost only 200 Yuan per couple (that's 3 couples including Mark's parents) which is only about $30. Not bad. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves on this one, but I do have to mention two things. First, Olivia had her first taste of ice cream and she loved it. We were shocked because she doesn't like things that aren't warmed up. She kept making a sour face at it with each bite, but she liked it so she suffered through the cold. It was super cute.

The other thing was something Jason did. There was a monkey behind some glass and Jay caught its eye and started to kinda lean back and forth with his arms out like an ape would do. The monkey imitated him. It was the funniest thing ever and the best part was seeing all the Chinese people start to laugh and clamor around to take pictures of this big American guy playing with the ape. They stopped for a minute and then as soon as the ape looked at Jay and he started to do it again, the ape did it too. There was one part I was able to catch on tape where Jay opened his mouth real big and the ape did the same thing. Oh man, did the people laugh. It was priceless and I have a great video of it.

One of the first things we did was go on a "Safari on Wheels" adventure where you take a trolley train for over 30 minutes through all the animals.

That was just amazing. There was hardly any (and sometimes no) space between us and the animals. It was really a great ride.

We also went to two shows, one for Elephants and one for the lions and tigers.

There were several classes of kids from the local elementary school. All the school kids here wear uniform. I just thought they were so cute and it made me really miss the boys.

We saw so many animals that we've never seen or that you can't find in America. I'm so glad we did this, it was a memorable day.

We went out on the town for dinner at a Pizza Hut tonight......it's that whole 'no more being adventurous with our food' thing.....and it was sooooo good. It just hit the spot. The nightlife was pretty busy even for a Monday night in this square. It's the same place Jay and I went to earlier this week, only this time we were able to see it at night and it was lit up like Vegas.

Tomorrow we have a wake up call set for 5:45 am because we have to get ready and have breakfast before meeting Lucy at 7:30 for our consulate appointment to get Olivia's visa. It's already past my bedtime then considering. Thank you so much for all the kind comments and continued prayers. Only 3 more days, once we wake up, until we go home......I'm very ready and can hardly wait.