Smiles

Grace continues to smile alot and giggle. She is happy and content most of the time, except at 2 am. I wonder if that is when she misses her caregiver most. She seems to enjoy being taken about. We walked to KFC for supper. She absolutely hates taking a bath.

Today we went to a museum and saw a concert. It's amazing how much history this country has compared to the US. Wuhan is very crowded and the air is full of smog.

Tomorrow one person from each family can go to visit the orphanage in Qichen County and also go to where the babies were found. It is a 3 hour drive one way, so they told us not to bring the babies. Jeff will go for our family, Grant and I will stay at the hotel with Grace. Friday we go to Guangzhou.

Also wanted to let you all know that I am unable to read any comments that are posted to the blog from here. In fact, I cannot view the blog as you do. I don't know why. Anyway, I can receive emails, so if you wish you can email us at the address on top of the page.

It's Official

Grace is officially ours today. All the documents were signed this morning at the Civil Affairs Office. The picture to the right is with the Director of the Qichun County Welfare Institute. Our guide has applied for the babies' passports and so the next few days we just sight-see and wait. Tomorrow we take a tour of the city.

Grace had a difficult night last night. She has a bit of a stuffy nose, so between that and the new environment and new people, she was up quite a bit. After some baby motrin, she slept good. Today we went to a supermarket and got necessities like formula and diapers and we also got some cold medicine. It seemed to work. She was an angel today for being shuffled around so much. She is not yet able to sit alone. She has 4 teeth.

Gotcha Day

Grace is ours!! We picked her up at the Civil Affairs Office this morning at about 10 am. We signed a temporary custody paper for 24 hours. Tomorrow we go back to the Civil Affairs Office to start the permanent paperwork.

Grace is quite petite, much less chubby than she looked on the picture. She doesn't seem at all shy with strangers and came to us with no problems. She's amazingly happy. She smile alot, babbles, and even giggles at Grant. We layed her in the crib to take a nap this afternoon and she fell asleep all by herself! The only time she cried is when she was hungry. We are incredibly lucky!

Wuhan

We've arrived in Wuhan and met up with the other 3 couples. All of us (including our guide) had dinner at an authentic chinese restaurant within walking distance from our hotel. It was very good. Grant is happy because there's a park a few blocks away where he can go and practice for baseball.

We learned that we will be leaving tomorrow morning at 9:30 to go to pick up our babies. It's earlier in the day than I expected and I suddenly feel scared. You'd think after 3 years, I'd be prepared. Then again, you're probably never totally prepared for something like this.

We're Here!

We'll we arrived in Guangzhou safe and sound. Other than some delays due to the snow in Minneapolis, everything went quite well. The flight from Mpls to Tokyo was excrutiatingly long, but uneventful. Our connection in Tokyo was very easy to find. And the airport in Guangzhou was also easy to follow. There are signs in english everywhere. We met our guide at the airport and he is very helpful. We are at the hotel now (it's 12:15 am here).

We'll try to get a few hours sleep and tomorrow we fly to Wuhan.

Getting Ready

We leave for China on Friday, March 21st (Good Friday). We've been scrambling to get everything ready to go -- so many details!!! We are incredibly lucky to have so many people in our lives that are willing and able to help while we are gone. We want to say a big Thank You to all family members, friends, and neighbors who will be taking care of the farm so that Jeff is able to be away. Thank you also to all my coworkers who are working extra hard so that I can take this time. We will indeed tell Grace of all the people who took part in this miracle of bringing her into our family.

It's a Girl!!!!

We received our referral on Monday, February 4th. Finally a day of HAPPY tears! Qi Xiao Rui was born on May 24, 2007 and is now in foster care in Qichun County, Hubei Province. She was found at the gate of a supermarket when she was just over a month old.

We signed the acceptance form and returned it right away. Now we wait to get our travel approval from CCAA and begin scheduling the travel dates.