Thursday in Hefei

Hope's first bottle with her new family. (The orphanage still fed her this way so we need to continue until we visit the pediatrician...also it is proven to help with bonding and attachment) Hopefully Miss Hope will not need this bottle any longer once her body adjusts to her new diet of Texas food. A little of Uncle Red's "Hell on the Red" Hot Sauce should fix her up just fine.

We all have cabin fever. The temp. outside has been around freezing all day and about sundown it started to snow again. I walked over to the KFC about four blocks away and brought back lunch for Becky, Hope, Jewell and myself. Someone asked in a comment who Jewell is. Jewell is my(Ronnie's) cousin. She and her husband Tillman live just about a half mile from our home in Texas. She volunteered to come with us to China way back when we were first planning this. She has been a lot of help and a lot of fun.

We all started out walking to KFC and the plan was to put Hope in the stroller and after she cried for a moment or two we figured that she would settle down and enjoy it. No such luck. She cried when we put her in it and would not stop. We were starting to get looks from passersby and we gave up. Becky and Jewell took Hope, (TanTan) back into the hotel and I continued on to KFC. Hope still will not let me carry her. Actually Becky is the only one who can do that. She will hold to Jewell's finger and Becky's while walking, but not to mine. She will only allow Yisha our guide to hold her for a little while at times.

Once again I find myself trying to win the heart of sweet young thing with big brown eyes. It worked with her Mama, so I am not going to give up. Tonight TanTan is amazing us with feats of brainpower. Becky looked at a book with her called "My First Words" and TanTan could repeat very well several words including grandma, baby, truck, tractor, cows, bananas, and birds. When she opened the page that had pictures of food she bent over and acted as if she was eating.

Later she played with her stacking cups, her other toys, and played a game with me of kicking off her shoe when I put it loosely on her foot. She had such fun playing that she didn't want to go to sleep at bedtime and Becky and her had their first showdown. After raising the roof for about five minutes she conked out listening to her little wind up lamb that plays the tune "Jesus Loves Me". She is asleep now and we are almost packed for our trip to the south of China tomorrow. We are looking forward to warmer climes.

Ronnie