10-14-08 Tues. 12:15pm China time Tues. 12:15am NC time

Hello Everyone!

Today we went to a Tea House. China is famous for tea. We learned about tea pots and the proper way to prepare tea. We tasted five different types of tea. The tastes were very different. Some were naturally sweet. Others were bitter and some had almost no taste at all. The Chinese people have hot tea at meals and during the day. Actually, the Chinese people do not drink cold drinks at meal time. They drink hot tea, hot water, coffee, hot milk, or room temperature drinks. Bin Bin has had hot water several times during his meals. He seems to like it. He is really starting to like juice!

I thought you might like to read about Bin Bin. So here's a little update on the things he is doing since we got him on Oct. 6.

• Bin Bin takes a short nap each day and sleeps all night. Getting him to sleep is still his toughest time. Once he is asleep, he does great.


• He is learning English well. He asks "What is this?" in mandarin all the time. I give him the English word and he repeats it over and over. He really is a sponge! Sometimes he will use the English word first. He always smiles when he says the correct word. He is so proud of himself (and full of himself, too :o)


• He is happier each day. His smile will make you melt!!


• We had to carry him everywhere the first week. Now he will walk and hold our hands or ride in the stroller.


• We have discovered he likes to sing! He will hold Steve's hand on the way to breakfast and sing the entire way!


• Steve is also teaching him how to dance! (see the pictures!)


• He loves fruit. Especially watermelon!!


• He is giving up rice congee in the mornings. He has now discovered crescent rolls and sweet rolls. He also likes strawberry yogurt.


• Crowds do not bother him as much now. He will only break down now if the space is too small for "lots of people". "Lots of people" was one of the first English phrases he learned!


• We say "I love you" in English and mandarin all the time. I think he finally understood "I love Bin Bin" for the first time last night. Steve said it to him and without prompting, Bin Bin said, "I love Baba(daddy)".


• He can be a stinker! He can look at you, smile, and do exactly what he knows he should not do. We are working on that :o) !
  
• He has learned sign language for more, all done, no, sit, and eat.
  
• He is learning the names of family members. From the first day, he has recognized and remembered Chandler! He also recognizes his cousin Carson everytime. He reocognizes Ashley and Alex everytime, too. He just has a harder time pronouncing their names--something about the "a" sound. There are other cute stories about how he recognizes other family members, too. We will tell each of you about it when we see you.


• We brought pictures of our house and his room. He recognizes those and will say, "Bin Bin's house" and "Bin Bin's bed".


• We also brought pictures of Bin Bin and a few of his friends from the orphanage. He told me who they were right away! When he looks at those pictures, he always speaks in mandarin but somewhere in all of that he says, "mama" and starts singing a song. It makes me wonder if the nannies taught the children a song to help them prepare for leaving the orphanage and having a mama. He smiles when he sees them. He seems to have good memories of them.
  

The past two weeks have certainly been a roller coaster of emotions! We are truly amazed by God's grace and love for us, our precious son who is no longer an orphan, and the three amazing children we have back home! We can't wait to be a family and start our lives together in North Carolina, the place we call HOME!