Guangzhou: Day 3

Job 12:7-10 “Ask the animals, and they will teach you, or the birds of the air, and they will tell you; or speak to the earth, and it will teach you, or let the fish of the seainform you. Which of these does not know that the hand of the Lord has done this? In His hand is the life of every creature and the breath of all mankind.” 

Today was another great day in China!! We had a relaxing morning since we didn't have to be anywhere at a certain time. Today we decided to go to the Guangzhou Safari Park after breakfast. We did not have a guide today, so we found out how to get to the park and headed there on our own. Our guide said there would be a lot of walking, so we borrowed a stroller for Shan Chen to ride in around the park since his prosthetic leg has been bothering him. It was a beautiful day, in the low 80s, so the boys wore shorts. It is fun wearing sandals and summer dresses when you hear that in Chicago they are getting snow. I'm so glad I missed that!! After we were done at the Safari, we were going to take the subway home. Our guide had told us what station we needed to transfer, etc. When we got to where we needed to take a shuttle bus to the subway terminal, we saw a taxi and decided to just pay a little extra and not have to stress about missing our stop and getting lost in China. Tonight we are going out for pizza, our first western food since arriving in China, with some other families that are here adopting. All of us had a great day today, but I think we will all sleep well tonight.

Feeding the giraffes.

Look at that smile!! The elephant had just shot water at him.

A.K.A. Popcorn. We then bought some since DJ has been asking for pop, pop, pop (popcorn) for days.

My friend Brooke's son Sawyer. The boys bonded over popcorn.

Feeding the fish.

The flamingos must be entering mating season. They were super noisy, did some flamingo march, and many of the flamingos were flaunting their wings.

Our group: two other families who are here adopting. My friend Annie was actually in Jinan with us at our Civil Affairs appointment. They are here adopting for the first time as well (they have 3 kids at home). My friend Brooke is a CA girl and is superwoman. Brooke has 10 kids at home and just adopted number 11!!! The two kids she brought with her are so sweet and good with the other kids. It was fun talking about CA, adoption, our children, and just getting to know other adoptive families. God is so good to bring so many amazing people into our lives through this adoption process.

Tomorrow morning we will meet our guide at 8:50 to head to the US Consulate. This will be the last piece of paperwork in China that we have to do for the boys. When the plane lands in Chicago on Sunday at 12:50, the boys will be US citizens!!!