A panda miracle!

This is not Washington's Mei Xiang but another panda in China.
As we're pretty big panda fans, having lived near the panda capital of the world for 3 years, I was delighted to read that Mei Xiang, the panda LEASED by China to the National Zoo here in Washington (is it not crazy that the pandas are leased?), gave birth to a baby cub last night!

This article in the Washington Post describes how difficult it is to tell whether pandas are really pregnant or not and how Mei Xiang has had FIVE false pregnancies.  Talk about disappointment.  I am really excited about getting to go see the cub while we are here! The National Zoo is free and was already on our to-do list.  Since R's brother J has a special love for all things cuddly and cute, we will probably go see them when he comes up to visit.

In honor of this new birth I thought I would post some pictures from my last Panda visits in Chengdu, China.  This was Spring of 2010 actually 3 weeks after R and I got engaged and during mom and B's trip to visit me in Asia.  This is also appropriate because mom & B have planned a trip to D.C. for mid-October to see R get sworn-in to the state department on his last day of A-100 training along with R's mom.

Early morning outside the panda base


They just have so much personality


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