Last day in Guizhou

We had another great day with our little girl. God has truly blessed us with this precious child. We visited Quinliang (sp?) Park today. It was a beautiful, sunny day and we enjoyed it so much. There are monkeys there that will eat out of your hand. And despite my reservations, all of my children (including Grace) were very excited to feed them.

Guizhou is a mountainous province, and the park is on a mountain. We climbed up it and were able to see lots of people doing tai chi and other forms of excercise. The view on the way up and at the top was really magnificent. I will post more pictures when we get to GuangZhou.

We had a cake tonight for all four little girls from Zunyi. This is their last night in their home province. Tomorrow we leave for GuangZhou. I am looking forward to our time in GuangZhou, probably in part because it is familiar and we know what to expect there.

David is definitely making progress with Grace. She still doesn't want him to hold her, but she is beginning to notice how much the other kids enjoy him, and is quite interested in watching him with them. Today she was facinated by his juggling. She is also willingly taking things from him and giving things to him.

The other kids have continued to do a great job here. We are so glad that we brought them all to China. Lily will be able to visit her orphanage in GuangDong Province. Please pray for her as she processes all of this.

Please also pray for my friend, Kimi, who is leaving tomorrow (is that right, Kimi? I'm afraid that my days are a bit mixed up!). They will be adopting Vivi Jo very soon, and we will be able to meet up with them in GuangZhou. Pray for Vivi Jo's adjustment to her new (and wonderful!) family.

I've been reading a great book by Bill Johnson while we've been here. Hopefully I'll have a chance to write a post about it when we get back to the U.S.

Thanks again for all of your prayers, emails and comments. We are so blessed by your love for us!

Finally...pictures of our precious girl!!

This is our first glimpse of Grace, in the hotel conference room.

Here she is after right after she was given to us. Not too happy!!

She went right to sleep that night and slept all night.

The next day brings a few smiles!

She loves jumping down the stairs at the Miao village (I will post some pictures of this incredible place on a different post).

Our family (with all of us smiling!) at the Miao village.




Today has been an incredible day! We've been playing and laughing and right now, Grace is walking around the room, fully content. She is singing, trying on sunglasses, eating snacks, taking the kleenex out of the plastic bag and being a regular happy 4 year old.

We had a chance to meet Grace's nannies yesterday and she would not go to them. She clung to me and cried until we left the room. Ever since that point, she has been a changed little girl. She is all smiles and happiness. She seems to clearly know that she belongs to us, and we belong to her. God is good!!!

Sorry. Not all of the pictures line up with the captions. You know that I'm not great with computers!

Up and running!

So, for some reason we are now able to access blogger. Thanks so much to Meredith and Tina for posting for us! I am still working on the photos, so hopefully I will be able to post Grace's adorable pictures soon.

Today was really good. Grace is doing so well. She has a smile that lights up a room, and she has clearly decided that I am "Mama" and that she is not going to let me out of her sight! I had to use the restroom at one point in the day, and when I returned I was welcomed with a beautiful smile and look of relief from little Grace. She has also determined that we are definitely her family. She LOVES to look at the photo book that we sent her, and point out all of the people in the pictures.

All of the four girls in our group, however, seem to have a little more trouble relating to "Baba". Please pray for Grace in this regard. David is so patient and loving with her, but she hasn't completely warmed up to him yet. I do know that he will win her heart, but am praying that it will be sooner rather than later.

We laughed so much today. There were still a few tears, but they were more a result of not getting what she wanted (our girl is a seasoned pouter!), than of sadness. We are so grateful to God for His beautiful gift to us. She is truly a gem!

Grace update!

This is Tina posting for Sarah, she is still unable to access Blogger (nor can anyone in their group). I have set Sarah's blog to "moderate comments", this means that your comment won't show up when you leave it, but it will go directly to David and Sarah's email so that they can see them, and then post them. Thanks!


Hello all! Thanks so much for the comments and prayers. Grace is doing much better, although she still has moments of real sadness. Please pray for her heart. She is clearly a very sensitve and thoughtful person. God will use these aspects of her personality in wonderful ways. But, for now, she is struggling, at moments.

On the other hand, today, she had lots of times of laughter and smiling. She loves to jump down stairs! All of the kids were so eager to hold her hand and to help her jump down the stairs. They have been so patient with her and so desire to show their love to her.


I thought that I'd give a little more detail about Grace's gotcha day. We walked into the conference room and she was sitting at the table. We smiled and waved at her. She seemed to recognize us. When they brought her to us, she walked into my arms. After about 5 seconds, however, she started crying very hard. It was so sad. The kids were a little overwhelmed. She cried for about a half an hour, obviously very distraught.


After a few minutes, we had Oma and Opa take the kids upstairs. Two of the other children were as happy as could be, but Grace and Quin (I posted her picture a couple of weeks ago), were both crying. Both of our families decided to take our girls up to the rooms. Grace calmed down a bit, but was still crying. She did not like being in the room and kept trying to get David to take her downstairs. She would say, "Uncle. Let's go goodbye." We said that he was Baba (Daddy), and she said, "Daddy. Let's go goodbye."


She tried various methods of opening the latch on the door (she is a smart little thing!!), and finally started stamping her feet. I have to tell you that she has the cutest little foot stamp that you have ever seen! David and I couldn't help but laughing, because it was so gentle and it wasn't much of a tantrum if that was her best shot. Of course, we felt terrible for her and kept trying to comfort her.

Finally, she calmed down and we had the kids come in one by one so they could see her. They understood why she would feel so distraught, and were sad for her. Oma and Opa took the other kids to eat and to bed in their room(s), and Grace ended up eating a bag of fruit snacks, but didn't want to touch anything else.

One of the interpreters came in, and she was able to communicate that she had to go to the bathroom. So, once she was able to do that, she was also much calmer. We got her ready for bed, and she went right into bed and right to sleep. I slept with her and she is quite a snuggler!!


She was pretty sad yesterday, but as I said, today was MUCH better. She had some sad moments of silent tears, but had many more moments of laughter and playing and smiles. She follows me around and doesn't let me out of her sight. She also is eating well now, and is not particular at all.

We visited a Miao village today and it was really neat. I can't wait to post pictures. Most of all, I can't wait to post pictures of our precious girl. She has a smile that lights up a room and is as cute as can be. She is a little peanut, but doesn't look quite as small as I thought that she would. The 3T clothes that I brought are big, but not enormous. She does have tiny feet, probably about a 5 or 6, so the shoes that I brought are too big. But, she loves her shoes, and really only wants to wear them. So, that works out!

Please keep praying for our little girl's heart. She is a tender little thing.

WE HAVE GRACE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We have Grace and she is wonderful! We are not able to access our blog, but my wonderful friend, Meredith, is posting this for me. We are able to get email and I think that we will be able to get comments from our blog through email. So, I'll try to reply to emails and comments soon. We will post a detailed entry when we get to GuangZhou.

Grace cried pretty hard when we got her. She has a bad cold, so is feeling kind of yucky. She has gone back and forth between being sad, smiling and we've even heard her laugh a little bit. She definitely started warming up tonight. She talks a lot and does not have a cleft palate!

She is as cute as can be and is very sweet and snuggly. Sorry that I don't have a great picture to post, but my picture reader isn't working. Another family had this picture from the adoption paperwork today.Thanks so much for your prayers!! Continue to pray for Grace's transition. We are so grateful for this little girl. She is such a beautiful gift from God!!

Last night as a family of 6!!!

I cannot believe that the day is almost here. Tomorrow we will meet our sweet Grace. We are still in LangFang (PHF) and had a great day again. The presence of the Lord is very evident here. David built Stevie (the dog) her house and it looks great. He made it to look like the other buildings here--Chinese style. I'll post a picture from GuiYang if I can. Lily and Adam and I visited some of the toddlers while Yana and Jadon helped with the doghouse. There are two boys in that house that are just precious. Lily and Adam were quite popular with these two boys (and also some of the rowdier crew of boys!).

Then, this afternoon Lily and Adam and I visited the more fragile babies again. There are some sweet babies there. What fun to hold them and love on them!! Yana has a bit of a cold, so she had to avoid the babies today, and Jadon was busy helping Dad.

We also visited the house of the construction manager this afternoon. It was neat to see the inside of his home and talk with he, his wife and his son (who translated for us).

Please continue to pray for Adam. He has had NO PROBLEM AT ALL with peanuts. Praise be to God! But he has had some other allergy issues. Last night the doctor from PHF came back for a house call, because Adam was wheezy. How neat is that, though, that she was available with all of the medications that he has taken in the past?! Someone had just donated all of the allergy and asthma medications. No coincidence there! God is definitely taking care of my boy. Adam also got a black eye(brow) from running into the door, and I forgot to mention that he lost his glasses on the plane. Despite all of this, he has had a great attitude. In fact, all of the kids have been incredible. What a blessing it is to be here all together!

Tonight, we had dinner with the Bakers. It was so good to meet Pam Baker. What a neat lady! We enjoyed hearing more about PHF and all that the Lord is doing here. They are a busy crew. Pray for their hearts to be filled more and more with the Lord and for the time to seek Him and be filled with Him on a continual basis.

Well, we are off to GuiYang in the morning. We will be meeting Grace at around 5:30 in the evening. I may not be able to post tomorrow, but will definitely try to post on Monday. We'd sure appreciate your continued prayers for this sweet little girl.

Hello precious little Teddi from your friend, Lily! She loves to hear from you.

Second day at PHF

Thanks so much for all of your emails and comments. We've been able to get email access and internet access very easily so far, so I've been able to check my messages. You're all so very encouraging. We so appreciate your prayers and well-wishes. You are a blessing to us!



We had another good day spending time with the children here at PHF. David is building a dog house for Stevie (the dog). So, Lily and Yana will feel a little bit better about leaving her. Some of the older kids here are responsible for taking care of her, but she definitely getting some extra loving from our kids!!



We had lunch with Tim Baker (and the Florida folks). He has a fervent heart for our Lord, for the Chinese people and for orphans. The Lord has definitely orchestrated he and his family being here and the very existence of PHF in China. We're planning on having dinner with he and his family tomorrow night.

We're off to get dinner now, so I'll post again tomorrow. Blessings to you from China!!!