More thoughts on Gracie Day

Visiting the orphanage really was an opportunity that will not soon be forgotten. This was a rare opportunity in deed. The children were well cared for. It was obvious that the nannies really enjoyed the children. We were all presented with a "care" package of our own. It contained the powdered milk that Gracie currently drinks, the two cameras we sent over to the orphanage (which we will get developed while we are here) and photos!!! Tons of them! Each photo mounted to a sheet of paper with writing and drawing... kind of like scrapbook pages put together by the nannies. We now have pictures of Gracie from 1 month on!! Again, very rare indeed! We were also given a professional photograph of Gracie that was mounted in a nice frame.

Here is Gracie back at the hotel... she wasn't keen on me removing her outfit so I decided to accessorize instead! Note the yellow socks and wideband.



We all headed over to the Civil Affairs office to officially adopt Gracie. We also had the VISA photo made. They gave us an official plate from the city in a nice wooden box to commemorate the adoption. This will be nice to hand down to Gracie.




While Ed went to scrounge up dinner (Pizza Hut... woohoooo!) I gave Gracie her first bath! She really enjoyed the water and didn't fuss at all. She did fuss when I put her in footie pjs! Conway, Anne and I got some congee and steamed egg custard for the babies and they feasted for a while... Gracie can eat!! She ate a bowl and a half!



Gracie pooped out about 7:20pm.... she was exhausted. By day end she was still a bit unsure of things and very cautious. We haven't had a smile yet but she is a bit more relaxed. We are hoping she will begin to open up soon. Tomorrow is a free day and we plan on getting to know our daughter and doing a bit of shopping. The shoes we brought with us are too big... and would like to find her some outfits too. We love our new baby daughter/sister... Josh held her for the first time and she just stared at him! It was cute really... he gave her the sweetest little kiss and she just kept looking at him... melted my heart! Josh has been an awesome help to us since Gracie arrived and a day doesn't go by that we don't hear him complimented by another family. We are so blessed to have two great kids!

So we are now a family of four. Gracie was a bit upset at first but fell asleep in my arms on the bus ride back to the hotel. Ed and Josh went to the grocery store with our Bethany leader Cheyenne and brought back some baby essentials...like Ramen Noodles. Yep... apparently that's a must! : ) Boy did she love them! It was really fun to watch her slurp them up.

She presented me with her first poopy diaper and I think she is working on number two from the noises that are coming from her. We are about to head over to the civil affairs office to make her officially ours in the eyse of China. They are coming to do this for us today on their day off as a favor. Our trip was shortened based on a holiday that's coming up... so it's really great that they are working with us on this.

All the babies seem to be doing really well and they are all soooo cute. Gracie seems to really just be checking us all out. Not really sure what to make of us all really. We have been able to get her to play with her stacking cups and has been hodling on to the same Cheerio for the past hour! LOL

Have to run will add more info later. What an amazing day and all thanks to our amazing God!!