Our First Full Day with Faith

What a sweetheart!!!  Faith is already beginning to bond with our family.  Today we got our first real smiles.  She was smiling at herself in the mirror, as she splashed around in the sink during her bath.  Then later in the day we took her to McDonalds, which is where she gave the biggest smiles (mostly because of the kids).  She also had what appears to be her first French fry.  She wasn't quite sure what to do with it, but realized it was yummy.  She also had a grand time pushing everything off the table.  We made quite a mess!!  We would have cleaned it up, but the Chinese are very efficient and had it cleaned up in a jiffy. 

Last night Faith clung so tightly to us.  Every time we would put her down, she would cry and look at us with those big sad eyes.  It breaks our hearts to think about all the times she probably was left to cry while in the orphanage.  This is not to say that her nannies did not do their best, but they had too many babies to take care of.  As a result of those terribly sad and longing eyes, we held her all night long.  She is ours and we want her to know how much we love her.  She spent a lot of time starring into our eyes, as if she could see into our souls.  Truly, an intense and wonderful experience.  As we sit here and type, she is in her crib to sleep for the first time.  She is very restless tonight, as she was last night.  She cries out and moans in her sleep.  I wonder what she sees in her dreams.  I hope it will be her new family very soon.

Chongqing is a wonderful and beautiful place.  Today we headed out to the zoo, which is located in a big, tropical looking park.  We were able to see 4 or 5 Giant Pandas, which was a spectacular sight.  They were bigger and much more active than the ones we had seen in San Diego.  We also saw a Golden Monkey, which we were told is a rare animal that is mainly in China.  Additionally, we saw "love monkeys" all snuggled up in their cage.   They reminded us of  those kissing bears Hallmark use to sell.  Noah had a lot of fun taunting the lions.  Unlike our usual visits to the zoo, these lions were up and roaring to go.  Local visitors to the zoo/park were doing Tai Chi and playing cards.

After the zoo, we headed to a Wal-Mart Supercenter.  It was located on the second and third stories of a larger building.  You had to go through other stores to get there.  They had a food section that would put our grocery stores to shame.  They waste nothing including heads, necks, tongues, etc.  We took some pictures until we were told it was not allowed.

Most of the evening was spent playing in the room.  We went out for an Italian dinner and ice skating in the mall.  The mall is connected to our hotel and is 7 or 8 stories.

Chongqing