Good morning everyone!

October 12, 2005

Hello again,
Well, another day is beginning here in Nanning. Today we are heading to a market to do more shopping and then we'll take Ling Ling to the park near our hotel to play. Last night, we saw her first tears, just after we went to bed, and aren't sure what brought them on. We assume she was missing her foster mom, but are going to have our guide ask her about it today. We expected that she would start to grieve at some point, and are happy that she feels comfortable enough with us to show such emotion. This morning, she is her normal smiling self and is sitting with Baba on the bed right now watching Chinese cartoons.

We completed all the notary and civil paperwork yesterday, so as far as China is concerned, she is officially a Westbrook now!! Now we just wait for her passport, which we will get Friday before we leave for Guangzhou.

I can't tell you all how blessed we feel to have this little girl, she is just so precious. Her personality is amazing, and she is so strong and brave for a child who is only 5 years old. I only wish we could understand what she saying when she's going on and on about something. Her little voice is so sweet and she sings very pretty as well. She likes to sing songs while she plays with her new Barbie, which she picked out at Wal Mart yesterday.

Well, I need to hit the shower so that I will have time to work on Jacey's hair before we go eat breakfast. She is definitely used to having it up, and even asked me to pull it back before she would brush her teeth this morning. I'm going to get really good at pigtails and braids eventually!!!

Love to all of you,
Marla, Derek, Mimi and the beautiful and amazing Ling-Ling

PS- Lorrie T-the orphanage gave us pics of Jacey and the first two in the album are of her and your Alycia (Yong Jun) together. They look fairly recent, and I promise to scan them for you when we get home! Alycia is beautiful!!

Joy Orton-We need your help with a few words!! Would you please send us the pronunciation in Mandarin of "wait" (or stop), "sit down", "eat" and "slow down"? We keep asking our guide, but can't always tell exactly how she's saying them. Jacey is so fast, and has memorized our hotel so well, that sometimes she takes off for the elevator before we even have a chance to get off the van out front!! We need a few words to yell in Chinese, hehe!!