Progress!

I only have a few minutes to post, but I wanted to let everyone who is praying for us know that Grace is doing so much better. She has especially blossomed today. She now loves the boys and thinks they were put on earth to entertain her. She's warming up to going outside, but won't stand in the grass yet. She rode in her car seat today without making a peep! We took her with us to take the boys to AWANA and she was pretty nervous at first, but when we went to pick them up she opened up and laughed and smiled some. She loved grocery shopping at Kroger. She rode in her stroller while Paul pushed the cart and any time he got behind us she would yell "mon!" (come on) She likes to help me load and unload the dishwasher, and put away groceries. The only area of concern right now is getting things done with school. It's been less than a week though, and it will take time to find our rhythm. Also, my back and arms are still giving me trouble, though I'm not holding her as much. We have lots of pictures to share as soon as I find a spare moment. We thank you all for your prayers, they are being answered for sure.

Thursday until Now

We are safe at home now with our daughter and sons, and Grace is adjusting. It is a process for sure, and at times it is a hard one. I am SO proud of my boys for loving Grace even when she is so angry at them for looking at her, or touching her. We would appreciate prayer once again that she would be healed and the boys would persevere. We all get glimpses of her now and then and for that we are so thankful. She only slept until 2:00am yesterday and it is 4:30am today and she is still asleep. That is huge! I on the other hand have been up since 3:00. Everything from my jaws down to my knee hurts from carrying her, but I am thankful that I haven't felt too tired or grumpy.

I want to catch the blog up from where I left off. On Thursday, our last day in Guangzhou we decided to take a cab with our friends to the Safari Park. We were pretty apprehensive about going for several reasons, but I am SO thankful we did. It was the most amazing zoo I've ever seen, and it really helped Grace come alive even more. The cab ride back was harrowing, and I prayed silently several times that we would make it home. We said goodbye to the other families and the shop owners who we had become friends with and left for the airport at 7:00. There were elements of China that I was happy to be leaving, and I was dying to get home to the boys, but it was also sad. Overall we loved China, it was a hard but amazing trip, and it is Grace's home. I was really sad leaving the other kids in our group, not knowing when or if I'd see that again. It was also hard for me to remove her from her culture, and language and bring her to a place where she is now a minority. I am glad we did it, and I know God has a plan for her, but I really did feel a little like a kidnapper sometimes during the trip.

The plane ride home was something I wouldn't care to relive. :) We did have a wonderful family with four kids (two from China) in front of us, and I found out that they homeschool too. There were a huge selection of seat back movies for people to chose from the entire flight, so hopefully not too many people were ticked at the toddler who was screaming and laughing and throwing food for most of the trip. I think we made at least 15 trips to the lovely toilets, which were an improvement over the hole-in-the ground potties in China. :) Paul's dad and Sherry were there to pick us up at the airport, and drive us to our house. Grace was so tired and sad, and did not like sitting in a car seat for the first time ever and cried for about 10 minutes for me to hold her, and then fell asleep for the rest of the trip. We were SO excited to see the boys and they were happy to see us. My parents had been staying with them at our house for the week. We had a wonderful welcome home party with our immediate family, minus my two sisters and their families and my neice and nephew- who all I missed. The boys had made a welcome home poster with our good friends the, and we came home to food, toys, flowers and balloons. Grace was pretty shut down and nervous but by the end of the night my sister-in-law, who really has a way with kids, had her laughing and playing. She even let other people hold her a little. We want to get her used to the boys before we take her to any large group activities that might put her back, but small groups of visitors to our home are fine. I plan to keep up the blog, but I have never been very good at that.

I want to say thank you again to everyone who has prayed for us and helped us on the trip. I honestly didn't know what people would think about us adopting #5, but the reception has been nothing but wonderful. It has been such a humbling blessing to be carried by our family and friends. And I must acknowledge again our beautiful Savior, who adopted us while we were in rebellion to Him and made us heirs to His Kingdom. He constantly amazes me with His faithfulness.

Wednesday

We had our appointment at the US Consulate in Guangzhou today. It ws pretty emmotional when they had us take the oath for our children and then announced that we would be signing our last piece of paperwork for the adoption. Grace is ours, we are finished with the adoption process! We are so thankful. Every day we see more and more of our girl. There is so much more I want to say, but time on the computer is always short here. I want to try and write out a lot of what I've learned while here, but it never seems to work out. I don't know that I'll have more time when we get home, but we'll see. This may be the last post from China depending on Grace's day tomorrow. Grace will be an American citizen when we land in Detroit!

Tuesday

We have spent the last two days walking around the island, shopping and playing with Grace in our room. In the room she is wide open, wild, running around yelling and laughing. She is a wild girl. Outside the room she is either grumpy or shut down with occassional moments of being content while being pushed around in her stroller. She's gone from being terrified of the bath, to angry at it, to loving it so much we can't get her out. She is no longer eating everything in sight, in fact it's been hard finding things she likes the last few days. Although, she loves Pringles. She jabbers a lot in Chinese, and can say bye-bye and wave. She says mama, baba (daddy), Bei Bei (what she calls herself and we call her) and ge ge (brother). She hates to wear clothes and we have force them on her. She is a lot of fun, and we can't wait for her to fully bloom, although we will have our hands full for sure!!

Grace loves the bath!

Daddy and Grace in our hotel.

Our group of kids on the red couch. Hannah, Grace, Sha Pu, Lily, Silei, Daniel and Mary.
Look who was not happy that mama put her down.

Mom and Dad with Grace on the famous red couch in the White Swan hotel.

Mom and Grace, she wasn't thrilled to be in her Chinese Dress.

We are really missing our boys, but being on Shamain Island has been wonderful. We've got lots of phenominal bargains, had Starbucks, met some Chinese Christians, and lots and lots of other adoptive families. It is really heartwarming to see all the new families. The very large majority of the children being adopted are waiting children. Please excuse my poor spelling and writing from this trip. I'm either distracted by Grace or exhausted when I write these. Love to you all.

Pictures from Sunday on Shamain Island

Sunday

It's been really hard to update the blog since getting to Guangzhou. Grace is a handful! And any spare moment we spend chasing after or playing with her. Our flight to Guangzhou was pretty uneventful until the descent when she started crying to go to the bathroom as soon as we began descending. She was pretty upset by the crowds at the airport and the hour bus ride back to the hotel. It wasn't fun. I held her pretty much the entire day and by the end my back and arms were killing me. She and I fell asleep as soon as we hit our hotel room, clothing and all.

We are staying at the White Swan Hotel, which is on Shaiman Island, on the Pearl River. It is an amazing hotel. We feel very spoiled. Shaiman Island is like a little respite in the hustle and bustle and chaos of most of the cities in China. It was a British colony at one time, and has beautiful buildings, tree lined streets, statues and a park. The traffic in China is INSANE. It's like nothing I've ever seen before. There are no rules, or lights, nor does anyone stay in the lines. Little kids ride on the back of their parents mopeds, crossing right in front of huge buses without batting an eye. We saw a little kid pushing a smaller child on a toy across a terrible crowded intersection. My palms were ltteraly sweating watching them. Shaiman island has a lot less traffic, though they do still drive up on sidewalks, and do not watch for pedestrians, you must watch for them.

Grace had a medical exam yesterday, which was really just a formality, and a TB test. She was terrified of the Dr.'s and nurses and screamed when they took her from us. She is a "girl" for sure, with lots of different moods. Sometimes she is hilarious, making funny faces and laughing, sometimes she is strong willed and throws a fit when we make her wear a coat. In China, they bundle up the little kids. She came to us in like four layers of clothes. She will have none of that now! She won't even wear covers at night and we have to force her to get dressed to leave the room. She still has moment where she shuts down, and moments where she whines when Paul even looks at her. But, most of the time she is okay with him now. New situations still scare her and she clings to me. At night and before nap she lays in bed and talks to herself in Chinese. Today she was singing, and we videotaped her even though it was dark in the room to get the sound on tape.

Today was mostly a free day for us and we walked around Shaiman Island. We ate at Lucy's an American Style Restaurant. We walked around a park, something new for Grace. Luoyang was all concrete and big buildings. She seemed to enjoy taking everything in. We kept saying, "Wait until you see home." She wasn't ready to play on the equipment yet. She did ride in her stroller after a small tantrum. We felt like we had to have one to save my back and arms. Everyone comments on how big she is and can't believe she is two.

Paul and I are doing well. Physically we haven't been sick or had any trouble adjusting to China (except for the driving). I was pretty exhausted after carrying her so much, but I am doing better. It's amazing how quickly we bonded with Grace, even if it took her a little longer to bond to us. She was definitely ours before they even placed her in our arms. We are constantly surprised by how like the boys she is. She loves to rough house with daddy, she doesn't want to wear anything but comfy clothes, no more hairbows! She is super strong willed. A trait everyone in our family but I possess. She throws her dolls on the ground and loves anything that she has to figure out, or has buttons to push. God matched her well to our family. Skype has been a huge blessing, I love seeing the boys every day. Though, in some ways it makes me miss them more. I can't wait to be united as a whole family. The boys seem to be doing really well. I will try to most more tomorrow. This Internet connection is very slow and it's taking all day to load even one photo. I'll try to post more later. Thanks for all the prayers and messages. We are blessed!

Friday

I only have a few moments to post. I had written a really long post and this computer deleted it!! I felt like crying. Anyway, Grace is doing much better! She is precious and fiesty, a spicy girl! She is much like her brothers were at two, into everything. She loves Paul again, most of the time. Yesterday was rough. She was somewhat out of her shell, but mostly moaned and whimpered all day. Last night she seemed to turn a corner. She still has moments of agitation and some whimpering. But she knows what she wants now and is busy trying to boss us around. :) We fly to Guangzhou today. I am excited about this leg of the trip, but somewhat sad I didn't get to take in more of Grace's home province. We mostly just saw the inside of the hotel, because that is where she feels safest. We've eaten at the Italian resteraunt here in the hotel several times. Sometimes we eat leftovers in our room, carry-out from the noodle shop, and once we paid a small fortune to eat a t the lunch buffet, but it was worth it to get some meat. Breakfast here is also an out of this world buffet, which we eat as much as we can of every day. I try to keep Grace's diet bland, but truly she would eat anything. In fact we have to cut her off before she eats herself sick which makes me sad. I'm a little aprehensive about the flight, but it can't be avoided, so Guangzhou - here we come!

Orphanage Visit

This is an awesome story that just about brings me to tears. Our church family at Frankenmuth Bible Church donated two huge bags of clothes, blankets, coats, socks, and other things to the orphanage. All of it was brand new, and some even hand knit. Individuals at our church also gave us way morethan enough money to check the bags on our flight to China from the US and then from Beijing to Grace's province of Henan. Honestly, I've worried more about these bags than anything about the trip, which is really silly. I was really concerned about getting them to and from the airports and about checking them in China as they are very strict that each person only check 1 bag 44lbs or less. We had four HUGE bags between us and three carry-ons, all overweight. The first leg of the trip we ended up flying Delta and they didn't charge us anything. We think its because they allow 2 checked bags per person for international flights, which we didn't know. The next leg of the trip was from Beijing to Zhengzhou. Our guide talked to the people at the check in counter and since the bags were an orphanage donation they decided not to charge us anything!!! When we got to Grace's province our guide was able to ask the director of the orphanage what they needed most. She said they were short on formula and diapers. Paul went to the store and was able to buy cases and cases of diapers and formula. At the store he was a huge spectacle and had like 20 employees helping him. When they found out that it was an orphanage donation they were so generous and threw in a huge case of rice cereal and gave him 50 % off the diapers so that he could buy twice as many. The exchange rate here is 6.5. I feel like God took the efforts of our church and multiplied them over and over. Once again, HE has proved faithful, even when my faith wavered.

The orphanage was SO grateful! He was able to tell them it was a gift from our church. The orphanage itself is old, but it is clean. It is very evident that the children there are loved and cared for as much as possible in that setting. Grace's nanny cried when she found out that Grace is having a hard time. It turns out she is shy and afraid of strangers. The directors took Paul out to a traditional Luoyang feast where he was the guest of honor. We are so humbled. The Chinese people are truly gracious and kind. I really like the people we have met here.

Grace has definitely bonded somewhat to me, and shows her personality to me. When we are alone she laughs and talks and even throws fit. That is good! But she can't even stand to be in the room with Paul and just grunts and moans all day long. It is very normal for a child to only bond with one parent. I think she loved having mommy all to herself and doesn't want anyone else around. So, prayers would be appreciated. We understand, but it's still really hard on Paul because he is crazy about her. He is making headway right now.

A New Day

Today Paul went and visited the orphanage. I am going to have to write a whole other post about that, but Grace and I stayed in the room together. She really came out of her shell with me today and was so cute! She loved being in the room with me, and walking the halls but anytime anyone else aproached us to talk she shut down. She was having a great time with me in the room and the second Paul walked into the room she shut down. She fell asleep within a few minutes. She took a nap and is awake now but very sad. Yesterday she did the same thing but with Paul. He stayed with her while I went to the Lotus Center (like Wal-Mart) to get a few things. She had a ball with him but when I came in she wanted nothing to do with me and was shut down for the rest of the night. I think she can only handle one person at time. The nannies said she is afraid of strangers. I am going to post later about the orphanage. I'll just say for now that is was a very good visit and Paul is really glad he went.

I am attaching some video I got of her.

It's Official - Day 5

Today we officially adopted Grace. She is a Wade now! We went back to the office where we picked her up yesterday and she and the other children (even the older boy) became visibly distressed when we approached the building. They remembered it from yesterday. She was really warming up to us in the hotel room this morning, but being out all day has caused her to shut down again. She just leans up against us and stares or sleeps. This is normal behavior for a toddler who has been taken from all that is familiar. Thankfully she does still eat and uses the potty. I'm also thankful for the few happy moments that she had with Paul yesterday while I was out of the room doing paperwork and that he got it on video. I watched her smiling and laughing with him while she was napping today. We are supposed to go shopping in a little while, but I am not sure that we will go. I am really missing the boys, but they are having a good time with grandparents.

Thank You!

Thank you for the comments and email. I feel lifted up when I read them and appreciate them so much. We are so happy, but it is hard watching her grieve. God is really good and I know he has us all in his hands.

Forever family day part 2

It's been a really amazing day, one we'll remember always. We are all exhausted, Paul is already in bed at 9:00 and he never goes to sleep before 11:30. Grace is so precious and we already lover her dearly. She is pretty closed off and sad most of the time, but we get a glimpse of her personality every once in awhile like in the pictures in my last post. She went to bed easily tonight in a big bed. I don't think she likes her crib much. We are grateful to God for giving us another child. We would appreciate prayers for her as she tries to process all of these changes,

Forever Family Day

Here are some pictures from today and a short re-cap of the day. I am going to post the rest of the pictures in a little while. These were taken in our hotel room.

We went to the Registration office today at 9:30. When we arrived one little boy (actually he is a twelve year old young man) was already there and we got to watch him be united with his parents, who are part of our group. We then waited on pins and needles for another hour for Grace and Daniel, also two, to arrive. When her van pulled up we all waited at the door and watched her be carried in. They sat both kids on the ground and our director approached them and asked who was who. We thought we recognized her, but it was hard to see their faces. It turned out we were right. We approached her slowly and spoke to her in the little Chinese that we know. She stared at us for a second and then started crying. She probably only cried for a few minutes and then just completely shut down and went blank. She is absolutely beautiful, and we are ecstatic to have her. I can't wait for her to meet the boys and for our whole family to be together. Paul was able to get some smiles and laughter out of her while I was doing paperwork, but she has mostly been very quiet. She looks around at everything and is very alert. It is very bittersweet because we are so happy to have her, but she is so scared and confused. She has cried a little bit here and there, but seems to be relaxing some. She is potty trained and took a short nap today. She really likes to be held or to have on of us nearby, especially daddy. She is a very good eater, which is a good thing. They call her Bei Bei (Bay Bay) in the orphanage, and we've been calling her that too. it suits her :). All three of the little ones adopted today are grieving, but that is totally normal for all the changes they've been through.

Sam, Joe, Will and Ben we miss you and know you will be awesome big brothers.

Monchichi

I had to get my picture taken outside the Monchichi store in the mall with the giant Monchichi's for the boys. My sisters and I had Monchichi's as kids and for some reason I told my boys about them and found the old Monchichi commercial on you-tube and showed it to them. They thought it was funny and watched it several times.

Day 3

Day three has been good for us. We've had a chance to relax and mentally prepare for "gotcha day" which is tomorrow. We left our hotel in Beijing at 9:30 and headed for the airport. Our flight left at 12:30 and was only about 2 hours long. We landed in Zhengzhou, the capital of the Henan province and were met by our new guide Yisha. We checked into our new hotel, which is wonderful and Paul went to the bank while I nested in our hotel room. We have a crib set up for Grace. I also packed her a backpack and a diaper bag. We ate dinner tonight with two other families at the Italian restaurant in our hotel, Mama Mia's. It was very good. After tonight we may stick to noodles and dumplings for awhile for Grace's sake. It's been great sharing this experience with other families. We are all so excited to meet our new children. Paul and I are ready for tomorrow, and not at all nervous as of yet.

This is our group, minus one dad who just joined us today (he is doing his 6th and 7th Chinese adoption!) The group consists of three couples, one family of five and the one dad by himself. George our guide is in the middle. All of us have other children and we are all adopting waiting children.

Here is Paul and I with George before we left for the airport.

This is me and Amy working on learning some Mandarin phrases to speak to our daughters tomorrow.

Paul is snoozing already, and I am really hoping to be able to sleep past 4:00 am tonight. We are exhausted, and that is a very good thing because we are so excited, it would be hard to sleep otherwise.

The next time we post will our Gotcha Day pictures!!!

Day Two

Day two was amazing. The day was completely packed, we left our hotel room at 8:30 am after skyping with the boys and didn't return until 7:30 pm. I laid down on my bed and fell asleep without blogging. I miss the boys a lot and skyping with them has been great. I can't wait to do it when we have Grace! Our first stop on our tour yesterday was a jade factory. We then visited the Great Wall of China. It is simply amazing. I can see why it is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Our guide challenged us to climb to a certain spot on the wall, and I don't think he thought we would make it. I thought it would be a hike, but I had no idea! It is mostly stairs, with a few flat places. The steps are very steep and all different sizes ranging from a few inches to a couple of feet.

Paul and I and another couple took the challenge and climbed to the spot our guide suggested. It was totally exhausting, one of the hardest physical challenges I've ever had, but I am glad we did it. Coming down was much easier, but very steep and all of our legs were shaking.

Here we are at the bottom, if you look on the top of the mountain we climbed to the third structure from the left. This picture was actually taken before we climbed. It was in the 60's today and we were very hot. There were some Chinese ladies climbing with heels on. We also saw several small children climbing.

Our next stop was lunch at another really good Chinese place and then to the Olympic Village, which now sits empty. It was pretty neat, we just took pictures from the outside. Some Chinese people asked to have pictures made with us and our friends, but Gregory the three year old, was mobbed with fans once again. :) Our last stop was an acrobatic show. It was really amazing what the performers could do. I bought a video because I knew the boys would love it. I loved it too.

We still haven't had jet lag but I've been going to bed early and getting up very early (like 4:00am). We leave today (Sunday) to fly to Grace's province. I am so excited we've reached this point in the trip, but have thoroughly enjoyed everything about Beijing. The history here is so interesting. (And for any homeschool Story of the World users out there I actually knew enough about Chinese history from what I've read to the boys to be able to follow all that our guide has taught us very easily.)

I will try to post again in the morning! I can read emails and really enjoy reading them, I just haven't had a second to respond yet.

We're in China!

After a really long flight we made it safely to China! The flight was good. I was able to sleep some, but Paul didn't. We crashed when we got to our hotel room and slept until morning. That was a really good thing because we didn't have any jet lag today. The hotel we are staying at is very nice. It has a really good breakfast and a mall underground. This morning we met up with the three other CCAI families and our guide George and toured Beijing. We took a rickshaw ride first.

Next we took a tour of a very old traditional Chinese home that is still lived by the descendants of a very old family and then a silk factory. That was actually really cool. I had no idea they actaully unwound silkworm cocoons in order to make the threads of silk. Here is a picture of what it looks like.

We ate lunch at a really good Chinese restaurant and spent the rest of the day touring Teinanman Square and the Forbidden City. The Forbidden City is the Imperial Palace where only the Emporer and his family lived. It was built in 1426 and is amazing. Our Guide is great and shared much with us about Chinese history.

We've really enjoyed or first day in China. The people here are very friendly and kind. They especially love the three year old American boy in our group and they'll often stop and take picture of him like he was a celebrity. To say that Beijing is crowded would be an understatement. It is a HUGE city with lots of modern building next to century old ones.

We had a very full day, one we'll always remember. We skyped with the boys and now we are going to bed. Only three more days until we get Grace! We are so thankful for this opportunity and for all the prayers. Especially for the boys as we are apart from them.

Tomorrow we se the great wall!

Please forgive the typos and poor writing. My brain is so tired it's numb.