PEOPLE'S PARK AND A BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION FOR LILY

Today was another beautiful and amazing day here in China. Halainah is still the happiest baby I know. She was a little cranky this morning as I had to wake her up because she was still sleeping. She just wanted to be held for about 2 hours. But after that she went back to being happy and playful and jumping and singing.

We went to People's Park today which was absolutely gorgeous. There were locals exercising, playing instruments and dancing. The parks here in China have exercise equipment for the adults and children to play on.

On the bus ride home from the park, Jiu Jiu Bobby held Halainah in the front of the bus and Tony and I sat in the back. I looked over and an unbelievably awesome feeling filled my heart. I leaned over to Tony and said, do you remember whenever we were out back at home we would see parents holding their babies and we would always say, why not us, I wish that were us? Well I looked at my brother and knew that he was holding our daughter. I just lost it and started to cry, she is ours and nobody can take her away from us. What an awesome feeling and we thank God for his MANY blessings.

This evening we went out to eat to celebrate Lily's birthday. She is another little girl that is part of our group. She turned 1 today. Well our guide planned a big birthday bash with presents, cake, singing and just enjoying a wondrous moment with new friends that we hope to stay in touch with. They have been a great support system while here in China and we are so fortunate to have met them. And their daughter Lily is so darn cute.

We are exhausted again, our days are so jammed packed with things to do. Halainah loves so much. It is a great joy to see her so happy. She loves to eat, play, talk, and cuddle. The only thing she hates is the bath as you will see in a picture. But I guess I can't have everything, right? We are so in love with our beautiful daughter and cannot wait to experience many firsts with her. She had a rough time going to sleep tonight as she ate way too much birthday cake. It was a lesson learned for me. Only a few small bites of cake for our little angel.

She is whimpering in her crib right now so I am going to comfort her. Tomorrow we are going to visit the countryside here in China. It should be fascinating. Well over and out from China until tomorrow. Love to all and we miss everyone. Keep the comments coming. We love hearing from everyone following our journey. It makes us feel closer to home.