Ok…go grab your kleenex. My best friend Diana who traveled with me to China in Feb/08 pretty much says it all in her letter to me below. I have to tell ya Diana…you had me crying bigtime as well as you beautiful Dalani!! I adore this photo and will treasure it always as I will the experience of seeing the moonbears for the first time with your grandma. I can’t wait to show off the photos of Mandela she took in tomorrows update!
MUCH MORE GREAT NEWS ON OUR MOONBEAR MANDELA IN TOMORROW’S UPDATE. THE MOONBEAR IS OUT OF THE BAG!!!!
Hi Sandra,
Thought I would let you know how Dalani reacted to getting a square on the Moonbear Sponsorship Quilt.
I had wrapped up the T-shirt that I bought at the Moonbear Rescue Center in Chengdu as one of Dalani’s gifts. She is enamoured with anything Panda and was so inquisitive and touched by the Moonbear and all the rescue efforts. She asked lots of very intelligent questions and even wrote about it in one of her class assignments last spring.
You know, the longer I live, the more I believe in fate. From the time we googled Moonbears after seeing Bam Bam [at the Tiger Temple in Thailand]…….our guide actually finding the Moonbear Rescue Center…..the fact that they were having a tour on the only Saturday that we were there……getting to ‘join’ a tour of grade schoolers. Then there were the camera issues. So many pictures, so many foggy-hazy-blurry pictures. Somehow decent pictures of Mandela.
Then Sandra has an ingenious idea to sponsor one of these creatures for a year and with the help of 25 people, built a ‘quilt’ for the Moonbears. I don’t know why I checked the list again—but there was just one square left—I bought it—-as another gift for our granddaughter Dalani.
I’m not sure if you have ever waited and waited and waited for someone to open a gift—tummy fluttering—not really sure if the gift will be understood—let alone appreciated. Well that was how I was feeling as the little girls opened their toys…. teenage Connor opened his American Eagle jeans (Sorry Connor-I always thought jeans were jeans–and Levi’s were fine!)
Dalani opened the T-Shirt-oohed and awed and then opened the package with a stuffed Panda and a picture of Mandela and explanation of the Moonbear Quilt Square. She started grinning from ear to ear-exclaiming ‘OH WOW!’. She disappeared and came back to the living room in her T-shirt, wanting her picture taken. She never took it off and stated that she was wearing it to school the first day they went back and was taking all the info and pictures to share with classmates and teachers.
I guess the highlight for me was when they were all departing for home and bed after several hours of games and being with family. Dalani gave me a huge hug and said “Grandma, I think the Moonbear Sponsorship is the BEST gift you have EVER given me. I love you.” I nearly cried–daughter Tara was misty when she said softly, ‘I knew Dalani would love it.’
Dalani has real empathy for animals-Grandpa Jim says she is like me in that respect. At any rate—it was a Christmas with Dalani that I won’t soon forget. Thank You BEST FRIEND SANDRA!!!
I forgot to tell you that on Christmas Day evening at the Extended Family Celebration, Dalani had worn a shirt that is velcroed and the kids can make their on messages on the shirts front and back. Across the back she had spelled out “Mandela” and on the front she had Moonbear Rescue. She had taken all her pictures and information. When asked what her shirt meant, she would promptly sit down and ‘educate’ the person who had asked who Mandela was! Telling everyone who would listen the plight of the Moonbear and how she was helping to sponsor one.
It is truely a special thing for her.!
Hugs Diana
.
.
.
I have been up to something fun here this past weekend. I now have my own studio webcam TV station which I have embedded into the Pandarazzi forum to experiment with on you guys. Eventually, I plan to do tutorials and radio broadcasts via this station!
(Note: The Cam is no longer operating)
CLICK ON ANY OF THE IMAGES TO TAKE YOU TO THE STUDIO CAM PAGE
A LINK TO THE CAM CAN BE FOUND AS THE FIRST ITEM IN THE COLUMN TO YOUR LEFT AS WELL
ABOVE IS A VERY ROUGH MAP OF THE YARD TODAY. I AM COMPLETELY REVAMPING THIS AREA THROUGH SPRINGTIME SO YOU CAN WATCH THE GARDEN ROOM GROW BEFORE YOUR EYES!!!… AND WATCH ME WORK WITH MY CHOWs MEG AND LILLIAN ALWAYS HELPING ME TOO!!
I update on Twitter every 1/2 hour while the broadcast is LIVE. If you don’t want to miss the fun, sign up for http://twitter.com and FOLLOW me…. @pandarazzi to get the tweets (notices) that I am online. …or simply stop in between 9:00 AM and noon PST, weekdays!! Hope to see you (or you will at least see me) tomorrow!!
This should be a lot of fun. You will get sneak peeks into my studio as well!
.
.
.
Dang he’s a handsome boy in his teeny tux!!!
What a treat to get these photos of Yan Yan on Xmas day…Carrie you must be working overtime BIGTIME!!! Thank you so much for getting these to us!!! Of course, most of you reading this by now know this is the little singleton boy born on the auspicious birthday of 8/08/08…….the beginning of the 2008 Olympics!!!
Photos and update sent to me today from Carrie Phillips at Pandas International.
Images are by the staff in China. Thank you so much for taking these incredible pix!! He is absolutely adorable!!
Below is an update on Fei Fei’s cub who we have proudly nicknamed “Yan Yan” or Eternal Flame!!!:
“Fei Fei’s cub can walk now. When it wakes up, it will move its body and crawl. When its mother is sitting aside, it tries to crawl to the mother and look for nipples to drink milk. It weighs 4600 g 80 days after its birth and 5800 g on its 100-day birth. It develops well and grows healthily.”
.
.
.
