Our Family, Our Joy: Park, Pizza, and Smiles!

Wednesday was our day to go to the People's Park of Nanchang. It's beautiful park with a lot of walkways, a pond, a small amusement park, and an exercise playground. The exercise playground is a large area with equipment for people to do their daily exercises. We saw primarily elderly people exercising; that is when the children would let them use the equipment. Lots of kids, many of them in split pants, and one little 2-yr old with no pants at all ! Our boys enjoyed climbing the equipment, while Lily watched. Alex even made a temporary little buddy to run around with. We get a lot of stares when we're out and about. Many women come up and ask our guide about us. They are very curious to know if Alex and Tyler are twins, and if Michael is from China. They also ask about Lily and why she's with us. They all seem happy that we are adopting Lily. The ones asking the questions won't usually make eye contact with me although I smile and try. Other young adults and children will come up to us and say "hello". The children usually run away giggling.

The park has a pond with these giant "hamster balls". You step inside and they blow the ball up around you and then you walk/roll into the water. Alex and Ruben both tried it out. It was very funny to watch them try to stand in the balls on the water!

After the park, we went back to the room for lunch and naps. Everyone was hot and exhausted.

Later that afternoon, Alex was playing with Lily and pretending to grab her little toy. She thought he was just too funny and starting smiling!!! Our first real smiles! Very adorable. Alex really had her going! She loves to play with him and will look for him when he's out of the room.

Lily is also very interested in the computer. She loves it when we pull pictures up on the screen and will stand and stare at the pictures. She knows all her brothers by name, but hasn't said them yet.

That night we had pizza up on the 11th floor with some of the other families staying here. There's a playroom there, and although there are hardly any toys, it's a nice open space for the kids to play and run. There are 4 other families here with us. They are from Seattle, New York, New Hampshire, and Mason, OH. Two of the families brought they're daughters, so the kids had someone to play with.

Lily had a very difficult time going to bed that night. The previous 2 nights, she had cried briefly and let us hold her while she fell asleep. Wednesday night was different. She cried hard, calling for her "grandmother", for about 1/2 hour. Although she let us hold her, she did push at us too. I think it's just setting in more that she's not going "home". It's hard to watch, and hard not knowing what to do to comfort her.

The boys have been doing great!! They try to interact with Lily and haven't show any signs of jealousy. Still working through a little jet lag. We put them to bed early, and they sleep fairly well now, but tend to wake up by about 6am. That's really good as they were waking up more during the night. Tyler and Michael are napping every day, and Alex naps every once in a while. I'm so glad the boys are with us. We are having a really good time as a family here!

Our morning picture. As usual, she checked out her clothes in the mirror.