I have spent an amazing 4 days with this little wonder & I wanted to take the time to tell you all about her. She is simply amazing!! Emma Grace is so loving and sweet. She loves to play and laugh & is all smiles. You can tell that she has received loving care from her nanny. She knows what affection is and wants it from us. This has answered so many of my prayers. I know that someone has loved her & from that she will bond with us. She is sitting up on her own & will pull up with help. She is not walking, but wants to try. She went back and forth between Aaron & I yesterday. I know that she will make leaps & bounds with us. I can also tell that she is very smart. She lets you know just what she wants and has figured out many little things on her own. She seems very clever. She is also very stubborn(just like mommy: ) Yesterday she only wanted to eat french fries at dinner. To show me this she would take the fry and shake her head yes & then eat it. Then she would pick up the other food, drop it on the floor and shake her head no. Let just say she is strong willed!! She loves to be held and kissed by all of us. She is already bonding so well. Last night after I put her in her crib she said mama & held her arms to me(my heart sang). She is such a blessing & we are so thankful.

It is now Wednesday evening at 10:45. We are concluding a very busy day. Last night Emma slept wonderful. She didn't wake up until 6:45 this morning. Our day has been very busy. Today we started off by going back to the Civil Affairs Office and receiving our "official" paperwork that makes us Emma's legal parents in the eyes of China. We then traveled by car to Linhai which is the city of Emma's birth. This was about a 3 hour car ride. Emma and Elisabeth did wonderful. We were met their by the assistant director and the director of the orphanage were Emma has lived. They took us out to lunch and then let us come back to the orphanage. We presented them with lots of gifts that we were able to purchase with donations people gave us. We gave them 14 packs of diapers, 6 larger bags of formula, wipes, cookies for the children, bath soaps and lotions and a car seat. They seemed very grateful. We were able to walk around outside the buildings but they would not let us see where Emma has stayed. Emma, Elisabeth and Maw Maw stayed in the car. We felt that it would not help Emma to be back there. Linhai is a beautiful city with large mountains covered with Bamboo. It is also a very poor area. We saw many homes that were falling in with no running water or power. It was very humbling for me to see my daughter's birth city. It is very hard to think of the life that she has had. As we road through the streets today I couldn't help but wonder about her birth mother. As I looked at the poverty and the need is this area I thank God as I hold my daughter in my arms. I also thank her mother, that she loved this wonderful little girl enough to let her go with the hope of something better for her. I pray that God can give her peace so that she knows how loved our daughter is.

Finally after a very long wait she is ours!! We arrived at the Civil Affairs office just a little before nine. When we were taken upstairs to the room that the baby's are brought to Emma Grace and her nanny were on the stairs. Daddy spotted her right away. She was wearing the outfit that we had sent her in one of our care packages. When we went into the room the Director of the orphanage took Emma and handed her to me. After a little fuss she calmed down and even showed us our first smile. She is so beautiful and we are so in love. She is tiny, the 18 month clothes that I sent fit her with a little room to spare. It took a while to finish all of the paper work and then we had to go and have a family picture made for the documents. Overall I think she is doing really well. She will cry when you try to change her from mom to dad or lay her down, but only for a little bit(oh and she has a great set of lungs: ) She played a little with a Elisabeth and even smiled and laughed. She is doing well considering that everything normal to her is gone. We have had a little trouble getting her to eat, but she is taking in small amounts and drinking a little water. We will try and add more over the next few days, as she gets adjusted, just wanted to let everyone know that we have a beutiful new daughter and are blessed:) Thank you for all of the prayers and for thinking of us. The words from home mean so much. It has really helped Elisabeth to hear from friends and family and her school family. God Bless:)

Saturday we toured Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. It was very crowed and very hazy in the city today. There are so many cars and the air pollution is terrible. The Forbidden City was amazing, and huge. There are 9999 ½ rooms. The is no number 10 in Chinese numbers and 9 is a lucky number. Our guide Helen took us to a wonderful authentic Chinese lunch. I included a picture of our table below. We also visited a Silk factory and got to see the process that they go through to make silk. After that we went to an acrobatics show. It was called a “The Flying Acrobats”. The children in the group loved it. Elisabeth has made many new friends that are also here with CCAI to get new brothers and sisters. She has had a lot of fun playing with them. We also took a ride on a Rickshaw down the back streets of Beijing. It was very eye opening and made me very thankful for the blessings in my life. Saturday Night we visited a restaurant called the Roost Peking Duck. The food was amazing. All of the sit down meals here are served on a large round “lazy Susan” that is maybe four feet in diameter. They just bring out lots of dishes and you pick and choose what you want to eat.


Sunday we went to a Jade Factory and learned the process it takes to make jewelry and other items from Jade. Then we visited the Great Wall of China. All I can say is that it takes your breath away. You are driving along on a flat road and all of sudden these huge mountains appear. You are then able to see a section of the wall sitting on the side of the mountain. It is a very surreal feeling to be able to see it in real life. Our guide Helen said that the Chinese say that you haven’t been to China until you have stood on the Great Wall. Well we can all say we have been to China and have a picture and the burn in our thighs to prove we climb the steps. We concluded our day on Sunday by stopping by the Olympic Village. We were able to see the hotel that is in the shape of a dragon head that will house the athletes’. Also we saw the bird nest stadium were the opening ceremonies will be held and the torch will be lit. They have done a lot of work to prepare for the Olympics and the city is very beautiful.

Monday morning started bright and early. We had to leave the hotel at 5:00 a.m. to go the airport. We flew from Beijing to Hangzhou. Our new hotel is fabulous and we were very glad to arrive. We had a wonderful surprise waiting on us. Josh and Lily the owners of our adoption agency have been visiting China and assisting in the earthquake zone with the ophanages that were damaged. While here they were able to meet us at the hotel. It was a very overwhelming meeting for me. I am so thankful to both of them for what they have done for us and also their compassion and love for the orphans of China. Also I am very emotional today anyway; I am prone to tears over the littlest thing. When we walked into our room and saw the crib they had placed there it was hard not to sob. It is so hard to believe that in just over 16 hours we will have Emma Grace. We are going to the Civil Affairs Bureau and will receive her at 9:00 a.m. Tuesday morning. That will be at 9pm Monday night for those of you in NC. We will try to call everyone that night if she is doing ok. Also thanks to all of you that have left messages! You will never know how much it means to have these words from home. It is hard to not be so homesick & your words are such a blessing.