Picture with the Pandas

On Tuesday, which was our first full day with the girls, we spent a lot of time together. Phil slept through the night and Jennifer didn't sleep much at all. Every time one of the girls would whimper or roll around, Jennifer would wake up. Those motherly instincts just kick right in. Phil woke up about 6:30am and decided to take a quick shower. We are learning that it is humanly possible to take a 2 minute shower. Who ever knew that you could soap, shampoo and condition in 2 minutes flat? Once the girls woke up, it was game on. We fed them their bottles in the morning and they both drank their formula great. We knew they were tired after their 10 hour bus ride on Monday to the city of Chongqing. After bottles and diaper changes, it was bath time. Phil, by the way, changed his first diaper ever. By God's grace and abundant mercy, it was only a wet diaper. Jennifer changed Kate's which was filled with many abundant blessings. Ah, dodged the bullet this time. Jennifer climbed in the bathtub with Kate first and she loved the bathtub. Later, Phil climbed in the bathtub with Lily and she did great also. These girls like to primp. After putting them in their cute outfits, we went to breakfast. Besides a 2 minute shower, we are learning the Art of 2 minute breakfast. It goes something like this "Phil, quick, eat that food so I can give you this baby! But Jennifer, munch, munch, I already have one baby, munch, munch, and this bacon sure tastes good. (5 minutes later) Do you think they could warm up my breakfast? It has gotten cold."
After breakfast, we took the girls back to the hotel room for their morning nap. While they were napping, Granddaddy and Phil went to McDonalds for some burgers and fries. At 230pm, we loaded up with the rest of the group to go to the Zoo in Chongqing. There, we saw some Giant Pandas. It was a hot day so most of the pandas were relaxing inside but two of them came out to say hello to us. The girls did great in the carriers. The carriers are great to build eye contact and attachment between us (you would be proud, Leigh Anne). After the zoo, we went to Walmart. As a group, we decided to donate some items to the orphanage. We bought them a DVD player and some walkers. We made a trip to Walmart to buy some more diapers and formula. It was very similar to those in the U.S. except for the chicken feet and duck heads (not the pants) in the meat section. We returned to the hotel and wrestled, sang, rocked, patted, bribed, walked and pleaded with them to go to sleep. Eventually, they both fell asleep and you would thought we had won the Michigan Lottery and the Pulizer Prize in the same day. As we realized it was 9pm and we hadn't eaten dinner, we "ducked" down to the Hotel chinese resaturant and ate some fried rice and hot and sour soup. It was a full day but a wonderful day to be together as a family. We know, by God's grace, there will be many more wonderful days and years ahead of us. Thank you Lord for entrusting to us these wonderful girls. They have been made wonderfully and fearfully in your image and by your loving hands. They are perfect!