First full day in China

After a full night's rest, we decided to venture out to the Beijing Zoo and Aquarium.

In the taxi going to the aquarium--no car seats.

The children couldn't believe this.

At the Aquarium the children got dolphin lanyards. After seeing how much Andrew and Cherish enjoyed the lanyards, we decided to get another one so we could give it to Hope when we receive her.

Cherish and Andrew with their lanyards:

Dolphin show:

Afterwards we searched for the Giant Panda. And when I say "searched", we searched! First, we don't speak Chinese so asking directions was out of the question.  Every sign pointing to the Panda bear was wrong. It was like someone was running ahead of us and changing ALL the signs. 

During our search, we walked by a group of photographers who were taking pictures of swans and ducks on a lake. When the photographers saw us walk by, many of them immediately turned their cameras on us. After lots of pictures(!!!!) and feeling quite awkward, the photographers gave us "thumbs up" signals and patted their hearts as if to say "you have good hearts". Then, they walked toward us to talk with us. We went to meet them, and one lady who spoke English said, "They are lucky children." Actually, we are the lucky ones! We are so blessed to be the parents of these precious children!

 At the end of the all the pictures,

Derek took his camera and took pictures

of the photographers greeting and talking with us:

And then, we finally found the four Panda bears--at the end of our time at the zoo. It was worth the search.