'Nuff Said.....

Day 7 - Chongqing

It's raining here in Chongqing. Today is a free day so we used it to get to know our new daughter. We did run across the street to a huge department store to get some items. Seems I can't find things I packed and have already run out of baby wipes and on the last of the diapers... how many Chongqing locals does it take to help an American buy diapers? Answer at bottom of post!

We had a break through with Gracie today... yesterday she would just sit wherever we put her and not move or do much. When she did reach for a toy it was with very small, slow precise movements. She was a huge daddy's girl and preferred Ed to Me and Josh....don't get me wrong...We do great when Ed isn't around! LOL! Today she has turned a corner and enjoys me holding her and has reached her arms up to me quite a bit and has allowed me to console her when not happy. Starting to feel like a normal mom again!! : ) We brought her down for breakfast with us and I fed her congee and steamed egg. She really likes steamed egg... note to self... find out how to steam an egg!

While Ed was at the bank, Josh and I were able to witness her first smile with us!! We even got some giggles out of her! And she no longer sits still, she turns herself around and follows what's going on and moves around to get to toys. As an added bonus, she throws the toys she doesn't want! : ) When Ed returned, he introduced her to the "raspberry"... it was sooo funny! She has been a happy baby all day!

Ed was pretty happy too when he found he could pick up the Sunday night game between the Cowboys and the Redskins on the hotel's ESPN channel. It was all narrated in Chinese, but hey.... it was football!!!

We went to the dept store to buy Miss Gracie some shoes (sooo cute and sooo cheap!!) and we were told (in Chinese) that we needed to put long sleeves on Gracie. I had already planned on buying her a cardigan or lightweight jacket so that was fine. Ended up with an adorable pink hoodie style jacket and an adorable pink cardigan!! (I love that I can buy pink!!) Then the sales clerks told me I needed to cover up her legs and brought over sweat suits....okay... the store was like 185 degrees and we were all sweating....even Gracie was breaking out in a heat rash. I had to say no to the pants. We also found a nice lightweight stroller for the rest of our time here and for the airports. *Note to Shauna - You won't be able to miss us next Saturday... we'll be the ones with the neon orange Mickey Mouse stroller!! We didn't bring a hip hammock and really needed something for the airports and tomorrow's trip to see the pandas. When we put Gracie in the stroller she got really upset. The sales lady came back with a cute little rattle and then gave me the box...I guess that's one way to sell your goods! lol

So how many Chongqing locals does it take to help an American buy diapers? The answer is six! Five to help us figure out the size by checking out Gracie, using an American one from our diaper bag and one to translate what everyone was saying! Everything was in KG instead of pounds...guess I should have paid better attention to the metric system when I was in school..... we ended up with the correct size and then spent the next 5 minutes trying to explain what "baby wipes" were and why I needed them! Good thing I have good Charades skills (thanks to Linda A's games!)... you should have seen me try to ask for a piece of chicken breast at KFC at the Beijing Airport yesterday..... nothing like pointing to your chest and making a sign of a chicken! LOL Apparently they don't sell chicken breast but the 'keel' like we used to have in the states years ago.

I leave you with Daddy's Girl!

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!!

Day 6 - Gracie Day!

Waiting our turn at the orphanage


Here she is with one of her nannies


The moment we have been waiting a very long time for


We are now a family of four!


She started getting a bit upset


Daddy walked her up and down the hallway whispering "don't cry" in Chinese


Gracie was one of the babies without any illness but she has a bit of a cough. She's just kind of checking us out for now...


Will try to post more later... We have an appointment to have the adoption finalized with the government later this afternoon and we'll see what Miss Gracie thinks we should do... : ) We are thrilled beyond words and we love reading all the e-mails... you make our day!!!

Day 5 - Chongqing



We are in Gracie's hometown! Weird saying "town" because Chongqing is anything but a town. We drove in at night and WOW! There are so many unique sky-scrapers....all of them are lit up and it just looks amazing! The plane ride was very nice... only 2.5 hours and we were given a movie, a full meal and the beverage cart came by 3 times! Now, on our domestic flight which was 3 hours we did not get a movie, beverage cart came by only one time and we got a mini bag of pretzels... what's wrong with this picture? LOL

We arrived at our hotel and WOW! Yeah... I'm using that word a lot! But we are in a brand new hotel that has been open for only 2 weeks. It's a five star (thank you Bethany!!) and we have a marble foyer (and a doorbell)

and a huge, I mean HUGE bathroom with marble floors and counters.

There is a separate shower (the water comes form the ceiling) and a huge garden tub! Honestly, we could probably fit 10 people in that bathroom!

We were welcomed with cute stuffed pandas on the beds and have a great desk/work area. We are on the 25th floor and have a pretty nice view of the city!



But by far the best thing about the room is this:



We were given updated pictures of the babies on the way to the hotel and well..... we have a little baldie! : ) Because the weather has been unbelievabley hot this summer, the staff shaved the girl's heads to help keep them cool. Apparently the orphanage does not have AC. She looks soooo big! And soooo cute! But they have her in a shirt that was meant for a boy... glad I also brought hats and headbands.... She is still taking a bottle as well.... I packed up her diaper bag... by far one of the best things I have done today : ). I can't believe it's finally time.....

COUNTDOWN TO GRACIE DAY HAS BEGUN!! In about 8 hours we will finally hold the little girl we have been praying our hearts out for! We will try to update the blog as soon as we can but that all depends on Miss Gracie! We will spend the morning with her and then head back out to complete the adoption on the China side of things... more paperwork..... ugh!

G'night and sweet dreams from Chongqing (pronounced Chong-Ching)! : )

Day 5 - Beijing

I climbed the Great Wall and used a squatty potty! Just when I thought things couldn't get more interesting!!



The Great Wall is absolutely amazing. Unfortunately the smog/fog/haze or whatever you want to call this stuff, followed us from Beijing and almost all of the pictures had that fuzzy kind of look to them.

This wall is sooooo steep! It was funny watching everyone climb up because it was so steep everyone was hunched over!



When we got to the top we had our picture taken and placed on a laminated certificate. What a cool way to remember the trip. I think the thing that amazed me the most was how the mountains looked. I knew there would be mountains but I wasn't prepared for the beauty and how similar they are to the Rocky Mountains.

Josh was also in awe of the wall.... It's truly an amazing site to see!



On our way to the airport guess what we passed? Yep... the Olympic Village and the stadium that is being built for the 2008 Olympics! It's massive and very modern looking. The majority of the site is covered up with massive billboards but we found this hole and got this shot!!

We will be in Chongqing tomorrow evening. Because we don't know what the Internet access will be like at our hotel, we may not be able to post as often. We will get pictures of Gracie out here though. I am fairly certain that the Internet will be available but wanted to put this out there just in case you do not hear from us in the next day or so.

God Bless and please continue to keep all of us in your prayers! A Big Thank You to all of you who have sent notes!! We love them!!!

We went to a local resteraunt for dinner tonight. We ordered 1 entree per family and shared family style. What a great assortment of food. We were very adventurous and tried a number of items.

Josh and I both learned how to eat using chopsticks. We had no silverware and didn't leave hungry!


The tea was brewed in drinking glasses... each glass came to us with the tea leaves we ordered and hot water was added.


No one spoke English so it was a bit of a challenge ordering. We got everything we had thought we ordered however we did get tripped up on the "fried noodles"... they brought us a bowl of ramen noodle soup! LOL

We celebrated the sucess of our authentic Chinese meal with Baskin Robbins!


Tarita and Lisa


Conway and Anne

Around Beijing:

Day 4 - Beijing

Well today is our last full day in Beijing. I can't believe we leave for Chongqing tomorrow afternoon!! We will start the day out by visiting the Great Wall and head to the afternoon for a late afternoon flight! We will be in Gracie's hometown tomorrow evening! We will welcome Gracie in to our family first thing the next morning!

But back to today....
Our group visited the Forbidden City and Tianenman Square. We had already visited both of these sites two days ago and frankly I wasn't to thrilled to go again. But wow... we saw so much more today! I think it had a lot to do with our Bethany guide Joy. She really explained a lot and gave us some free time to explore. We saw so much more and really enjoyed ourselves. I am amazed that thousands of locals flock to these sites every day. And there are no rides! I guess living in Orlando has jaded me a bit when it comes to attractions. It seems like you just don't go someplace unless the rides are good. LOL!

At Forbidden City - Imperial Garden


Imperial Garden - Forbidden City


Ed and Josh at Forbidden City


Our Bethany Group


The Olympic Countdown is On!


Scott and Anne, Ed and Josh


We also toured a Hutong. We all took rickshaw rides in to a neighborhood called a Hutong. A hutong is an ancient city alley or lane typical in Beijing, where hutongs run into the several thousand. What an eye opener. Some of the homes were really quaint while others represented poverty we just don't see back home. Residents rent these homes for very modest fees (kind of like rent control)and while they cannot change the outside they can do whatever they want to the inside. The one we visited had crown molding and wood floors. Very nice. But from the outside? It looked war torn. Our guide explained that the government is currently doing work to restore the outsides as well. This was evident as we drove by some of the other Hutongs.

Ed's Ride


Lisa and Josh in Ricksaw


We are about to head out for dinner with some of the group... and then it's creative packing time. We need to have our bags outside our doors by 7:30 am where they will be picked up and deliverd to the airport. We head to the Great Wall at 8am... we are very excited abou this trip! Who knew we would one day see the Great Wall? Who knew we would one day adopt a baby from China! What a trip this has been so far!

Enjoy today's pictures!

Day 3 - Beijing

Today we decided to lay low after the big day yesterday. We started off with breakfast in the hotel...ahhhhh the western buffet is turning out to be our biggest meal each day! We met up with the rest of the families. I can't tell you how fun it is to finally put a face to the folks we have been chatting on line with for the past year or so! They are a great bunch and we are having so much fun with them all!

Ed and I got massages today... holy cow! We got to get them together so that was fun... and the total cost was less than what one of us would have paid back home!

Josh worked on homework, we both did some reading and just enjoyed the day. We finished out the day by attending an acrobatic show. It was really cool! Including pictures below.

Tomorrow we get off to an early start and head out with the goup for the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square and a Hutong Tour. Gotta go to bed.... still trying to adjust to the time.... Josh was out like a light and Ed wasn't too far behind. I nodded off during dinner last night (not cool) and fell asleep on the way back from tonight's show! LOL.

We get Gracie in just under 2 days now.... can't believe it!!! Stay tuned. Thanks for checking in and a special thanks to those who are leaving comments and/or sending e-mail! It's great to hear from everyone... what a pick me up!!

Stacey - No more spending on things I can get in GZ...thanks for the heads up... I have spread the word....we all thought we were doing so well too! : )

Sign 'o the Day:

Day 1 -


Day 2 -


Day 3 -