Wow! God has been so good to us on this trip and with this new child. It’s like a light switch has been thrown for Alexis and she has accepted us as her family. Now, I am not naive enough to think things are perfect from here on out. I’m just saying that the shy, introverted side of her seems to have disappeared. What has appeared is a strong willed, happy, loving little girl. She wants to sing, play, talk, play some more, color, and pretty much anything else she’s offered. She sees herself in pictures and says her name out loud in a growing crescendo until her final syllables are near the peak of her volume: Lin Guo TIAN!!!!! I’m betting the hotel neighbors love it.

Christian and I took her outside this morning before lunch to play in the open garden area in front of the hotel giving Momma a little quiet time to rest and do a little Bible study. Christian played with his heliquad while she watched from her stroller. Well, that lasted just a few moments. She was out of the stroller and chasing his heliquad around to make sure it was upright and ready to fly again each time it touched down. In between, she’d kick me the soccer ball we had out. She downed a bag of dry cereal and a bottle of water. Okay. The water went down her shirt as much as her throat, but she loved it and it cooled her off. Not such a bad trade off.

Once back into the hotel room, she returned to laughing and playing again. And she hasn’t stopped all day. She’s thrown a few little two year old tantrums when she didn’t get things like she wanted them, but what two year old doesn’t do that? It just tells us she’s very normal.

David stopped by with lunch for us again today, bless his heart. He is amazed at some of the things she has been saying and doing. He keeps telling us how smart she is and how she’s so articulate considering her cleft lip and palate. It’ll be interesting to see how that changes with the surgeries. David has been a God send for our family on this trip. He has already been given an open invitation to our home whenever he wants to visit Texas. He says our meat tastes weird in the states, but I figure I know enough good BBQ places that might change his mind. If nothing else, we always have Chick Fil A. 🙂

Speaking of eating, we made it through dinner at a local Chinese restaurant without David there to interpret. Well, he did write up what we wanted on a piece of paper for us to hand to the waitress. She giggled as she walked away. I’m sure it was the cuteness of my son that was making her giggle and not the pathetic need for written directions to get our meal. We never got any soy sauce, to Christian’s dismay. They did bring us two large spoons in the middle of the dinner. I guess they thought we weren’t cutting it with the chop sticks. Christian and I were doing just fine. Monica had already given up and swapped to the serving spoon they provided. No matter. We all were full when we left. I used the Cantonese translator app that I put on my iPhone to ask for the bill (another giggle) and offered up a 100 yuan (my normal procedure). And considering it costs us about 80 yuan ($12 American) to get a very full meal for the entire family, I’d say it’s worth the trip. No way we get out that cheap in Longview for Chinese food (or any other type for a family of four). Family of four. That’s still foreign to me. Every time we walk into a restaurant, I hold up three fingers as a translation for a table for three. That fourth finger has to make an appearance at some point automatically soon. I will remember.

Tomorrow is our last full day in Nanning. We have a trip to a museum planned. I fully expect Alexis to be bored out of her mind, but it is important to Monica and me that we understand the culture and history of her birth country and province. Lots of pictures and notes should help us be able to keep her informed of her background. No need to lose the rich ancestry she has had just because an American family decided to adopt her as their own. Now, she’ll have two family histories to share with her own kids one day.