Day 2 - Adoption Certificate and the city park

Bella is sleeping with Rachel and will have it no other way. Last night she had nightmares at least three times. She would cry and flail her arms as if she was being hurt. It made Rachel cry to see her that way. But this morning she woke up happy and smiling. In fact, she has not cried since we left the civil affairs building on Gotcha Day. What a blessing.

This morning at breakfast we met two other families. One was from Baltimore and the other from Sweden. It was great to speak english for a while without having to use hand gestures and minimal words. The couple from Sweden left today but we hope to see the Baltimore folks again before they leave on Friday.

We met Lily at 3:00 and went to the Guangzhou Security Center where we received our official adoption certificate. There were several other families there for the same process. It is interesting to see how different all of the families and the children are. Our Bella would definitely be one of the most outgoing of them all. She is full of smiles and giggles and just has a presence about her whereever she goes.

After we left there Lily offered to take us to a public park where Bella could play. It was off the bank of the pearl river and was a beautiful place. The trees were unbelieveably huge and looked to be a thousand years old. There were several rides for small children which Bella had to herself and rode There was also area with all kinds of exercise equipment, jungle gym equipment, ping pong tables and large spaces for some kind of game similar to hackeysack. It was working alive with people. We were the only American's we saw in the whole place. Some people greeted us warmly, others simply stared and made no facial expressions. It was nice but we did feel out of place.

Our language barrier with Bella is a little better today. She definitely understands some things we say and she repeats much of what we say whether we ask her to or not. She knows what "no" means but seems to enjoy pretending she doesn't. Haha! She's a pistol!

Dale and Bella bonded well today. He wrestled with her until she couldn't catch her breath from giggling so much. She thinks he's a big play toy for her to enjoy or abuse. If she's mean to him Rachel gets bowed up pretty quickly at her and scolds her. Bella just giggles as if she's saying, "I was just kidding!"  Then she gives that smile and we all laugh even if we have to turn our heads when we do.

She randomly looks at us and gives kisses and will say "I love you" without prompting. It's unbelieveable. The work God can do with the human heart is truly amazing. His love is evidenced for us daily in this adventure.

Here are some pictures from today: