Happy New Year!

Not that anyone even still peeks in on this blog, but I thought I would at least leave a few pictures. I’m really bad about sending them to friends and family, so maybe this way at least they can see them. :)


Gracie’s been home for 4 months now, and we already can’t imagine life without her. She immediately fell right into place. It seems as though she’s been here her whole life. God is good! It is so evident that she was meant for us.


Ok, so now what you’ve all been waiting for.......

Happy Birthday, Big Girl!

Beautiful!


What a cute little ladybug :)

Did I mention how smart she is?

Her favorite pasttime ~ emptying any drawer, shelf, or cabinet in sight :-0

My First Christmas

Our Christmas Angel

~no words necessary~

a happy girl

Sweet!

And ending with a song. I know it's a little late, but maybe you could still say a prayer for all the families still waiting for their babies and all the children still waiting for their families.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy8RW6aHXWQ

Home Sweet Home

I can’t believe we’ve been home for over a week now, and I’m just now getting to update! I’m sorry to have left everyone hanging about the plane ride home. It was actually better than we could have hoped. She did great considering we had to hold her for over 27 hours. Your prayers worked! Thank you!

I wish I could tell you how wonderful life has been since getting home. Don’t get me wrong – Gracie’s wonderful. It was just a long, hard week getting her settled into this new routine, new schedule, new life. Her days and nights were truly mixed considering China is 13 hours ahead. She hardly slept at all the first few days or nights. She became more and more increasingly exhausted, which meant extremely fussy. But, I am happy to announce that the last couple of days and nights have been much better, and we are beginning to see that sweet spirit emerge once again. Thank you, Lord.

I am still tired and it’s getting late so I will keep this short. I just wanted to let everyone know what’s been going on this last week. I began this blog to keep everyone updated on our trip, so I guess now that our trip is over the updates will likely come to an end. I do have many things that I would like to say about Gracie before I officially sign off, so maybe I can do that sometime this weekend. Thank you to everyone who left us messages. We check daily to see if there are any new ones. It has been fun communicating this way.

Oh, and yes, I will add some more pictures this weekend, too. :)

We're Coming Home!

~trying for the famous "red couch picture"~
~Gracie waiting patiently (or not) for the others~
"I can do this by myself!"
She thinks she's a big girl standing by herself.
Not very ladylike, but precious all the same. :)

"Today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way!" - Dr. Seuss

Yes! You heard that right - We're Coming Home! Goodbye, China!

We have just finished up all of the packing that we can do tonight. We are leaving our hotel at 5:15 in the morning, which will be 4:15 Tuesday afternoon (Memphis time). If all goes as planned we will be back in Memphis by 6:30 Wednesday evening, so basically a 26 hour ordeal with about 19 - 20 hours in the air with wiggle worm. :) Once we are home, Gracie officially becomes a U.S. citizen!!

I will update again once we are home and settled back in.

There's no place like home. There's no place like home.....

~Gracie being a big girl for the nurse.~
~Mommy still working on those kisses.~
~a silly girl~
~a busy girl~
~the cramped shopping mall~
~a nice Chinese restaurant~
~the view from the Chinese restaurant above~
(I did not use zoom for this picture. It was that close to us.)

~dancing in the park in Kunming~
~Mommy and Gracie saying goodbye to Kunming (Gracie's birth place).~

------

Well, there’s not really a whole lot more to tell. Right now, I think we are just all in survival mode to get through the next couple of days. China has truly been a wonderful experience in addition to the complete joy that Gracie has brought us, but we are ready to come home now.

Gracie continues to amaze us. She’s just so stinking cute, even when she’s mad at us. Yes, she has a little attitude when she’s sleepy or hungry. But, for the most part, she’s really sweet. She likes to play, especially in the bathtub. David has taken her swimming a couple of times, and she really enjoys that. We have just recently discovered what a daredevil she is. It’s so funny. She will sit on the edge of the bed, pool, etc. with her arms in the air and just fall into David’s arms. It’s so funny to watch because she is just cackling the whole time. You can see the fear in her eyes when she’s going down, but then right back to the laughing. It’s hilarious!

Yesterday we went to the market area. Again, not at all what I was expecting. Parts of it are similar to a mall, but everything is just so unbelievable cramped. There’s no room for anything. The best part of that adventure was that we found a McDonald’s!!! Maybe the food wasn’t exactly the same, but it was close enough. I though it was great. :)

Tonight we are going on a river boat cruise, so I will let you know how that goes. We originally thought we might skip that, but at this point we are just trying to pass the time.

~having fun in the hotel room~
~part of playground in front of Wal-Mart~
~people watching TV in front of Wal-Mart~
The first restaurant we ate at in China.

NO, I did not eat any of this! ~garbage man on Shamian Island~

The last 24 hours have certainly been the most difficult (physically) so far. Gracie has been wonderful. We are all just so very tired. We had to leave Kunming yesterday to travel back to Guangzhou. This is where the U.S. Consulate is, so we will finish up our paperwork here. We left Kunming yesterday at 3:30 and did not arrive in our hotel here until 11:00 last night. We had a 9:30 appointment this morning, so we have just felt a bit rushed all day. But, we made it. Another huge step in getting Gracie home.

As ready as we are to come home, we were a little sad to leave Kunming. I wish we could have spent more of our time there. Not only is that where met our sweet girl, but it is a nice city. We LOVED the weather there. It was around 75 degrees during the day. A much needed break from Memphis weather, which by the way is exactly like the weather here in Guangzhou - HOT and humid. We also loved taking walks in the park. It was a beautiful park with lots of interesting activities going on.

While here in Guangzhou, we are staying on Shamian Island. There are lots of adopting parents here. We are not quite the spectacle here that we were in Kunming. While we weren’t the only Americans there, it seems that many people don’t see them much. We got more stares than I count. Not in a bad way. Most people were very excited to see us. Some teenage girls ran up to us on the street and wanted us to take a picture with them. It was funny. They were squealing with excitement. Also, we got Gracie’s picture drawn in chalk while we were in the park. While the artist was drawing it, we had a gathering of probably 30 people around us watching. It was amusing. Everyone was very friendly, though.

We did have some good news today. Gracie had to undergo a medical exam as part of the adoption process. They heard NO heart murmur. Two different doctors listened and found nothing. Now, do not mistake us - we will certainly have her thoroughly checked out as soon as we get home, but we definitely took this as a good sign.

Gracie seems happier and happier each day. Her sweet little personality is coming out more and more. She has always seemed comfortable with us once she settled down, but her spirit is shining through in new ways everyday. She is such a blessing!

Not flesh of my flesh,

Nor bone of my bone,

But still miraculously my own.

Never forget for a single minute,

You didn't grow under my heart

But in it."

~Fleur Conkling Heylinger

The "suburbs" on the way to the village.
Some of the housing in the village. Notice the children playing.
Me and Gracie :)
A happy girl

A little baby girl was born to a mother on October 2, 2007, in the Wang Village about 45 minutes outside of Kunming. When I began dreaming of things about Gracie and for her, one of my hopes was that she would be found with a note. I was hoping that this note would give her some comfort that her mother loved her and wanted a better life for her. I was disappointed when I was told there was no note. I had heard that her orphanage typically doesn’t give out any information like that even if there was any. So, I still thought that it was likely. However, after yesterday, I realize that in all likelihood there wasn’t any such note. Not for lack of love on her birth mother’s part, but on lack of all that we take for granted. Let me first say that I have truly enjoyed my time here in China. Many parts of it are just like you see in pictures. It’s beautiful, modern, and the people are so friendly. However, I now realize there are so many things here that I never could have imagined. When I first arrived here, I was taken aback at the living conditions in the hundreds of thousands of apartment buildings everywhere you turn. These apartments are literally right next to fancy, expensive, modern buildings. It’s not something we are used to. I was so saddened to see how poor so many of these people were, and how bad things seemed from my perspective. Today, I realize they are some of the lucky ones. I wish I had the words to describe what we saw, but I just don’t believe there are any. I just want to say that now more than ever, I do believe in my heart that Gracie’s mother loved her and wanted a better life for her. She gave Gracie a gift by leaving her to found by someone that she knew could take better care of her, and in turn, she gave us a gift as well. I will forever be grateful to this woman I have never met and who lives half a world away. I cannot even begin to imagine what she must have gone through to have to leave her baby. I know it was hard for her because it took her well over a week to do it. My prayer is that somehow she will have a peace in her heart about the little girl she gave birth to. We certainly cannot begin to understand all of God’s ways, but we are certain that He knew this would be our daughter.

Once she was found, she was taken to Kunming Social Welfare Institute. There, during her initial entry medical examination, a small heart murmur was found. She was then considered a baby with a "special need." In other words, her first step on her road to us. We were told that she stayed at the orphanage for about 5 or 6 months. We had the opportunity to visit this orphanage today. It is very nice, well kept, and clean. We were not allowed to take any pictures inside the building, but it was very much like what you might think. Nice, but an orphanage all the same. There were baby beds lined up one after the other in the sleeping room. There was only room enough to walk between them. In the eating area, the same is true for the high chairs. We were able to meet some of the caretakers, and they even remembered Gracie, calling her by her Chinese name. We were both a little concerned how this might go with her, but she showed no interest in them at all. She was happy right where she was - in my arms. :)

At some point, she began living with a foster family. We don’t know anything about this family. All we were told was that they lived on a farm. We believe that they took very good care of her, as good as they were able to do. She seems to be very healthy and happy. For that, we are so grateful. However, living on a farm in China has some problems. The main one that is still affecting her is the bug bites. They are on her chest and arms. She has scratched some of them until they have become sores. They were very itchy, and it has been sad to watch her scratch like that. We have been working hard to get them healed. Hopefully, that will be a thing of the past very soon. They are already well on their way.

As far as whatever was going on with her a couple of days ago, that is completely gone away. Except for a little runny nose, she is as healthy as we could hope for. She is filling our days here with happiness, love, and believe it or not, even a few kisses now and then. :)

I will sign off for now. I’ve probably already gone on way too long. Tomorrow we leave Kunming to finish our China adventure in Guangzhou.

All children come from G--, for some the journey home just takes a little longer."
- unknown

Another Gracie video

Tammy will update soon about some very interesting things we have been doing. Gracie feels great and is smiling and talking more than ever. If the video does not play, please let us know. We cannot always tell if it is not working properly.

Right now, I’m sitting in our hotel room as Gracie finishes up her morning nap. As I said yesterday, she got sick last night just as we were going into Pizza Hut. We were hoping it was just something she ate, but she was running a little fever throughout the night. We have started her on Tylenol, Ibuprofen, and an antibiotic. Hopefully, she will turn the corner this afternoon. She has managed to keep a pretty decent sized breakfast down, so we are taking that as a good sign.

David is out on a Chinese adventure right now. Our guide took the group to a nationality center. I’m not sure exactly what it is, but from what I’ve heard, I think it will be very interesting. He took the camera, so hopefully we will get lots of pictures. Maybe he will even tell us all about it when they get back. :)

In my post last night, I forgot to mention our Wal-Mart experience. Oh my goodness!! Not at all what you would think. We knew it was quite different the moment we pulled in the parking lot. There was an intense basketball game with spectators going on. I think David really wanted to join in, but I talked him out of it. :) There was also a play area for children. It had slides, swings, etc. There was probably more equipment than most of our playgrounds at school. Then, they had another area with television sets. Many people were just gathered around watching television. All of this was going on right in front of the store, and there were people everywhere. Think Black Friday, but without the wait at the checkout. Our group decided to split up and meet back out front in 45 minutes. We were there to get basic supplies. We were told not to bring too much excess stuff for the baby since we would be making a Wal-Mart trip. Most of us thought 45 minutes was plenty to pick up a few odds and ends. Wrong!! We had no idea what we were in for the moment we stepped through those doors. First of all, there were workers EVERYWHERE. I mean several on EACH aisle. That, however, was no help at all for us because of our lack of Chinese. We needed diapers, formula, and snacks for Gracie. Diapers were easy, and I finally found some formula that said 0 - 12 months in English. The snacks were a whole other issue. We finally just decided if it had a picture of a child on it, we were going for it. It’s very intimidating to feel so completely helpless. You can’t read anything, and you can’t even ask for help.

I think she’s waking up, so I will go for now. I have to practice those kisses! :) Also, I have no pictures because David has the camera right now. I will try to add some later.

Pizza Hut

Poor baby! She missed out on pizza. :(

Today began really well. First of all, Gracie woke up smiling at us. She’s so sweet! And, we actually had some time off today, so we took a walk in the park. That was very interesting. The closest thing I can compare it to would be Central Park, but with many different sites. First of all, it was packed. For any park to be this crowded at home could only mean a carnival, concert, or holiday. This was late morning on a work day. There were many people doing "regular" park things, but there were many other things going on that we wouldn’t normally think about doing in a park. Of course, we saw Tai Chi, but there were also several groups doing ballroom dancing. Many people were just playing cards like we would do in our living rooms. Others were playing instruments, singing, all sorts of things. It was quite interesting. The pace in China is much slower, I think, than what we are used to. Although there are people and cars (crazy cars) everywhere, you just don’t get the sense that many people are rushing to do much of anything. We could probably take some lessons from them on that.

We had a treat for dinner tonight. Our guides took us to Pizza Hut!! I’m not even crazy about pizza, and I can’t even say that truthfully it was the best pizza ever, but it certainly seemed to be! Most of the women in our group were thrilled to be getting pizza. It was funny when our guide asked us who wanted to go. She said she needed to know how many so she could make reservations. How funny! However, when we got there, it wasn’t like our Pizza Hut except for the food. It was a very nice sit down restaurant with dressed up waitresses.

I said the day began well, because around dinner time tonight, Gracie got sick. Let’s just say no one was rushing to sit next to us. We were all stinky, especially David. :) She’s asleep now, so we are hoping it was just something she ate. She’s been through quite a lot in the past 2 days. I can’t imagine what she must be thinking. Whatever it is, though, I think she’s happy. She seems to have bonded with both of really well. Her way of affection is burying her head into you. Even though that’s really sweet, I want kisses! It makes me so sad to think she’s been in this world for 10 months with no kisses or hugs. She doesn’t even understand what I’m trying to do when I kiss her or hug her. Of course, we are working on that diligently. It won’t be long! I have to give her enough to make up for the last 10 months. :)

Thanks be to G– for this indescribable gift!
2 Cor. 9:15

Gracie laughing video

Here is a video you can watch of Gracie laughing. That is until she sees the camera and goes stonefaced.

(Not sure why the date on these pictures is wrong, but today is August 11, 2008)

Oh my goodness! Gracie is taking a nap right now. Otherwise, I would not be able to be writing this right now. That girl is a wiggle worm!! She doesn’t stop. She’s bright, curious, and on the move. We’re still not sure how we are going to manage the plane ride home. We’ll figure something out I’m sure.



She is absolute doll! Have I said that already? We arrived here in Kunming yesterday, and were able to get her right away. Right now, we are all still adjusting to all of the changes, so we haven’t been able to do a lot of sightseeing yet. We will stay here until Friday, so we will be working that in. I want to walk around and take lots of pictures of her birthplace so that I can show her when she grows up. Life is SO VERY different in China than what we are used to. Of course, I knew that, but seeing it makes it more real. We have only really been here in Kunming so far, except for the day and a half we spent in Guangzhou. We will go back to Guangzhou on Friday and spend a few more days there before heading home. Both places we have been to remind me of New York in some ways. There are lots of tall buildings and people walking around a lot. Some of the differences are the cleanliness (or lack of), the traffic, and of course the fact that we are completely illiterate. I don’t think they have any traffic rules except "move!" It’s not so much that they drive fast as it is that there are so many cars, bikes, walkers, and scooters on the road. We had several near misses of pedestrians, but it wasn’t a big deal to anyone. They did say there are very few accidents, so I guess it’s working for them. I went out last night and was terrified to have to cross the street. Much harder than even crossing in NY. At least there you have signals to tell you when to go.



Today, we went back to the Civil Affairs office. This was for paperwork in which China made us officially Gracie’s parents. It still feels strange that all of this is happening this week. Today is the same day we had Hanna’s funeral 4 years ago. It’s certainly bittersweet, but we just feel that this is her way of shining her light on us. We are so thankful for the promise of eternity!



We will be going to Wal-Mart in a couple of hours. That should be a treat. I’m REALLY hoping to find some Diet Coke. Even though it still doesn’t taste like ours, it’s better than water. It reminds me of Coke Zero - just not the same. Finding it on the street is an ordeal, and then you have to pay way too much for it. When I went out last night to look for it, I stopped to buy David a drink. It’s very difficult to do the simplest things. Two children were running the store. Their dad was there, but they were the ones working. They tried to tell me how much. The little boy held up 3 fingers, so I gave him a five. He shook is head no, and held up 3 fingers again. So, I pulled out all of my money and tried to get him to just take whatever he needed, but I don’t think he wanted to that. His sister then picks up a calculator and punches in 3, obviously thinking that she’s dealing with quite the idiot. I still didn’t understand why they wouldn’t just take my five. Finally, she takes her money out of the register to show me exactly what she needs. The five I was offering her was like a half dollar (yuan). Duh! After that, the lightbulb went off and I paid for the drink. They got a laugh out of me. At least they have a story to tell about the goofy American. :)

We Have Her!!!

I had planned on updating this daily, but so far that’s just not the way things have worked out. Oh well, the good news is......

We have her!!!! She looks healthy, beautiful, perfect in every way. Of course, we think she’s just the cutest baby in the group, but I guess all the parents feel that way. :) She has a head full of hair! Although it was not exactly love at first sight for her, it certainly was for us! Then again, we’ve been in love since May 12.

We were in the China Civil Affairs office when they brought all of the babies in at once. There were 5 families in our group. Well, the screaming started immediately (yes, all 5 babies). That did not, however, stop the nannies from handing them right over. It was complete chaos for about 20 minutes. These poor babies! They are being handed over to complete strangers. I felt so sad for them, but yet happy, too - all at the same time. I know it’s the very best thing for each of them. It was just quite emotional for everyone as you can imagine.

We did not find out until yesterday that Gracie has been in foster care for the past 6 months. She has been out on some farms, so they warned us on the bus that they would have mosquito/bug bites. We really didn’t notice it right away because she had 4 layers of clothing on. Yes, I did say 4! We discovered them when we changed her into her pajamas. It was really sad to see a 10 month old baby scratching her chest. I didn’t even know babies could do that. We will certainly be glad to get her home and get rid of those nasty bites.

By the end of the evening, she had warmed up to us a little. David even managed to get a laugh out of her. She is a VERY busy baby! She is certainly going to keep us on our toes. We are already wondering how in the world we are going to manage the plane ride home. It will be interesting.

I will try to post some more tomorrow if I can. It’s been quite a day!

We're here

First, let me say this is David, not Tammy. This will probably be my first and only entry, and it will be brief.

We made it to the White Swan Hotel around 12:15 Saturday morning, which would have been 11:15 am Friday in Hernando. The flights went well. Tammy was able to sleep some on all the flights. I didn't sleep at all on the 13 hour flight and just a little on the flight from Tokyo to Guangzhou.

We are very excited about getting Gracie in less than 48 hours now. It is bittersweet as well because it was 4 years ago today (8/9) that we lost Hanna. We know she is in a better place and is very happy for us, but we miss her more than ever. Whoever said time heals all wounds was wrong (and other words I won't say here.)

Anyway Tammy will post tomorrow.

David

PS - It was probably a first that there was no traffic in Guangzhou. We arrived just as the opening Olympic ceremonies were finishing. We saw maybe 10 cars on our 2o minute bus ride.

We have decided to start this blog in order to keep our friends and family updated on what is happening in the process of bringing Gracie home from China. We began this process 2 years ago, and on May 13 of this year, we finally got the call that we had a daughter! She was 7 months old at that time. We were thrilled! From that point on, there were only 2 more things we needed from China in order to be able to go get her. The first was an LOA (Letter of Acceptance), which came quickly on June 2nd. Next, all we needed was Travel Approval. That FINALLY came, and we found out that we will be China bound on August 7th! Gracie will be in our arms on August 10th. This is a very significant time of the year for us considering that we lost one of our daughters to cancer on August 9th four years ago. We believe this is just Hanna's (click here) way of smiling down on us and letting us know that she’s looking out for her little sister.

We are now only days away from meeting our daughter! It’s really amazing how in love we have all fallen with this little girl that we only have one small picture of and is half way around the world. But, our G-- is an amazing G--! We are thrilled beyond words that He has chosen this child to be a part of our family. What an honor! We cannot wait to meet her and hold her FOREVER!!

Feel free to check back as we will be journaling our experiences in China.