Park, Zoo, Pizza and Shopping with a Princess.

The entrance to Five Springs Park and a small swarming around Aurora and Tom, showing our card to say who they are.


Today was awesome, the best touring so far! We met at 9 and headed out to a park called “Five Springs Park”. Again, I missed most of the commentary about the park itself b/c I was busy with AnnaWen and Steve, but it was a beautiful place. There were people everywhere, doing Tai Chi, walking, singing and playing instruments, doing morning exercises, dancing, playing pool and badminton. There were walkways through trees and over bridges. Above us in the mountains were pagodas among the trees. We were somewhat of an exhibit ourselves, a bunch of white folks, with Chinese children and cameras.


Most of the pictures in this blog are from the park (I took 277) but I dispersed them throughout the narrative to keep you reading. In one pic above, you'll see raised stones, those are raised on purpose to press on "pressure points" in a walker's foot.

In the middle of the park was a Buddhist Temple. I had asked the guides to arrange an opportunity to have AnnaWen blessed by a monk, but they must have misunderstood me because when we arrived there, where they had said we’d do that, they told me this was the place to pray and when I tried to rectify the misunderstanding they said there wasn’t time. Instead we lit some incense and followed the directions of our guide to bow appropriately and make a wish before Buddha. Then we two candles, one for AW and one for me, to light and leave before Buddha. I was able to buy some bracelets there providing proceeds to the Temple itself. That will have to do.


From the Temple, we went to the zoo!!! (within the park) Monkeys, zebras, giraffes, bears, cats (even little house cats that came and went in the cages) and a PANDA! who made a very brief appearance at his door to see what the commotion was about before hightailing it back into the dark. While we LOVE zoos, this one wasn’t great to visit. The cages were concrete and small. There were camels, which I wanted to ride with AnnaWen until I got close enough to see how they were kept – both on very short leads, one with a large stick through its nostrils “for control”. As much as I wanted to ride him for the experience, I didn’t want to support the cause.

A ride for the children... one of three pictures I got of the panda. Your ass would look wide in those stripes too.

We left the park and headed through Lanzhou to a pizza restaurant. Much like Pizza Delight. The pizza choices were interesting, a seafood one, a fruit one, but several were typical. Mine was delicious – very near the top of the pile of pizza I’ve had, and I’ve had a lot of pizza. Wen was a handful there. She threw things, wouldn’t sit down and yelled. More typical two year old stuff, just hard to manage without the language to do so. She also pinched Kira again, which makes me feel horrible for Kira and worried for the Munsters at home.

The middle picture is our fave 3 year old travelmate, Kira, and her new best friend, Julie. The last is our group (and some locals mixed in) resting under a tree after a morning of walking.

After lunch we returned to the hotel to drop off stuff and men and headed out to a local whole sale market “to buy clothes for your babies” (quoting the guide). I’m sure this venture was directly related to my failure to treat the baby well by dressing her warmly enough. I found one pair of pants for about $5 that were cute, but no tops at all. Most of the clothes for kids here are gaudy, and covered in silly characters. I also bought a suitcase for about $30 as since we have a new travel companion we get to check and carry on additional luggage and I figured it would be cheaper here than in Beijing.


We were dropped off from shopping at the hotel to have a “free day” for the rest of the afternoon. I guess “free days” are good for providing down time and rest but it’s my least favourite part of the day. I’m in CHINA, I want to see as much of it as I can, not sit in a hotel room for several hours. Also, our hotel room is small, and our toys are limited and Wen gets bored easily with us and the toys, which translates to behaviour. Julie and I walked the street and looked in the shops but it was the same touristy merchandise in every single one.

AnnaWen continues to do awesome. She’s talking up a storm, in Mandarin. As I’ve written before, she’s imitating single and two words easily (when in the mood), but hasn’t demonstrated any meaning of them yet. I think she may be getting “up” but I’m not sure. She has started asking Steve and I to pick her up, which is nice to see. There was no aggression towards us today, but as I wrote, she continues to be aggressive towards Kira (our three year old travel mate). I’m not sure if it’s a pecking order thing or what.

We talked to the kids tonight, and I miss them terribly. Apparently they are being good for Rick and Shulilah, who are there now until Sunday. They’ve been busy with tball and daycare/school. They are sooo excited to see AnnaWen on the computer! They send her “winks” on MSN and say “Nihao!” (hello). I’m sure the novelty will wear off and we’ll all have a huge adjustment period, but it’s so nice that they’re starting off excited – it can only help. AnnaWen acts funny when we’re on the computer with them though. I’m not sure if she understands who they are, but she grows and attitude and turns her back on them and on us. She knows she has two gege and one jiejie at home, and one of her favourite things to do is pour through her photo albums labeling them (which is really really cute) but she doesn’t care much for seeing them on the computer. Today was a little better than previous “visits” – she sat longer and showed them the remotes and her motorcycle (hopefully Elliot didn’t recognize it) and waved when they waved, so hopefully we’re making progress there too.

All in all, I’m amazed at how well it’s all going, and feel so blessed to be here with her. I have moments of anxiety when I still worry how she’ll impact our home nad family as it was – I mean we had things pretty good with three well behaved, independent, healthy happy kids and now we’re throwing a whole bucket of unknowns into the mix. In some ways, she’s still a little girl I just met whom I’m caring for and I feel protective of the other three Munsters from her, and a little jealous of the time she’ll take from their time and care. I’ve read that is normal in adoptions and will pass with time. I can believe it because in many other ways, I feel like she has been a part of me and of us for so long already, going forward without her would be impossible. Tonight Steve and Julie weren’t interested in dinner so she and I headed down together alone. I would have skipped, but I want to make sure she has every opportunity to eat because she’s still not eating a lot. We had a nice ‘date’, talking and playing and looking into each other’s eyes. While I am anxious about how it’ll work out, I have no doubts that it will. She’s my daughter, and that’s all there is to it.

N