One Year at Home!

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