Today is Monday and Ting Ting is napping in her crib. It's been one week since she joined our family. What an incredible week. This is the first time I(Mel) have been able to have the time to write. Mary- I'm calling her Ting Ting, is so adorable I can hardly stand it. She bonded immediatly with me and has been on my body in some fashion literally 24 hours a day. She's only 17 lbs. but let me tell you that my back feels it. But for the past 2 days she has been getting off of me and playing. She crawls and walks holding on to things and today was standing up alone a few times. Brandon has held her some today without her screaming so we are really making progress.
There is a great playroom here at the White Swan Hotel and that is where Ting has opened up. She laughs and is very responsive to Grace who is wonderful with her. She slept in her crib last night from 8 pm to 6:30 am and Grace slept from 7:00 until 4:30 am so I finally got some sleep and really feel so much better today. The White Swan is a beautiful hotel with many adoptive families. We're enjoying all the babies and parents from all over the world.

They have Christmas decorations up! It is really strange to see the Chinese waitreses in little red dresses trimmed with fur and Santa hats on. Capitalism is alive and thriving in China. We went to church yesterday that was packed. They read the Bible in Chinese abd then English. The singing was loud praise music with Chinese words up on the screen first and the English. It was awesome and very moving.
We've done some shopping here, of course, and talked to a beautiful young girl in one shop for a long time. Her Engish was very good and she told us in China they call the children the last part of there name 2 times. So Hai Ting would be called Ting Ting and that fits her to a T. She is petite and quiet but very alert and responsive. It's unbelievable that in one week she has reached deep into my soul and crawled right in. I think God created us with the ability to love whoever he gives to us without hesitation. We've been nice and easy with her and now she feels pretty comfortable with us. The orphanage information about her described her as quiet, timid, and active and that is how she is.
So it will take her a little while to warm up to everyone but she has the rest of her life to do that. Please excuse my rattling on. Sleep deprivaton has something to do with that! We're ready to come home but not looking forward to the long flight and time chnge again. It's been hard on Grace so I'm sure it will take her a while to get back on a normal schedule once we get home.
Best wishes to all.






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