Memorial Day

Today we took a drive around some neighboring country towns since it was a beautiful day. Here is the sight from the front seat of the van... as you can see, we nearly fill it up now! After our drive, we headed to the mall for a few little things, lunch at Chik Fil A, and a quick stop at the indoor playground. Gracelynn and Tommy both played very well on the playground while Ben and Reagan helped Mommy do a little shopping.

On the way home, we stopped at a local park. It was very busy, but it only took Grace about 20 minutes to ease her way from our legs to venture around. She loved the slides! I'm not positive what the official temperature was, but our car showed it at 92 degrees most of the afternoon. Here are some pictures of the kids at the park.

After the hot, hot park, we came home and the kids relaxed in the sprinkler. All in all, it was a nice, relaxing day with the newly expanded Hollar family.

Home For a Week Now

One week ago, we were arriving at the final airport. Whew! What a week. Gracelynn is adjusting just fine to our home. She's quite comfortable with our family, as a matter of fact. She just goes with the flow and does whatever we're doing. She sleeps in her bed just fine (and now has learned to leave the bed when she awakens... not sure that's a good thing just yet...LOL), she naps each day in the afternoon, she finds food when she's hungry (which is ALWAYS), and she loves to explore. Grace eats so much these days (mostly fruit)... I'm having a hard time keeping up with the pull-up changings. The orphanage workers assured us that she is indeed potty-trained, but I'm not sure their definition meets my definition. She will "go potty" whenever we set her on the potty. However, two and a half weeks later, she is still not telling us when she needs to go. I've tried signing and teaching her the English words and even commented on the fact that Tommy goes whenever he needs to, but so far to no avail. So, although Mommy was so ecstatic thinking that she had all children potty-trained, but sure enough, it's not quite true. We're blowing through Pull-ups these days, considering how much she eats! Hopefully we'll get there soon enough.

When she is in the mood, she'll repeat all sorts of words for me. Her favorite three words now (which she can and does say often on her own) are "Tommy", "Mama", and "Reagan".... with surprising clarity too! We've been working on colors and names and other words, and although she can repeat them, so far they aren't committed to memory yet.

Grace has had three days of meeting all sorts of people! On Wednesday, she was met by lots of preschool moms and kids at Tommy's school, and then all of the Brownies after Reagan's meeting. On Thursday, Tommy and Grace rode up in the double stroller to the school to wait

for Reagan and Ben. (BTW, they LOVED that, especially when I had to lift the front wheel to turn... it was like a roller-coaster.) So at the school they met more neighborhood moms and kids. Today she wandered outside for a few minutes to meet the neighbors. Everytime she gets this little furrowed look on her brows as if to say, "What are you all looking at?"

Today was another horrible medical day. I thought I'd take her to the lab to finish up the pediatrician's requests for bloodwork and stool samples. First of all, the pediatrician's office gave me the wrong container for the sample, so we have to do that over again. Secondly, the two nurses took 20 minutes playing with her arms and poking her (twice, while moving the needles all around) just to say they couldn't get the blood. Ugh. The poor thing was soaked from sweat and crying (and so was I from holding her the entire time). It was awful. She was still screaming as we left the office... I can only imagine what the poor people in the waiting room were thinking. Now we get to go back and try again!!! I think I may wait another 1.5 weeks to try again... once Tommy is back in school camp so that I don't have to take him again. He was good, but it's tough enough to hold her while always watching to make sure he's being good too!

We're looking forward to a very UNeventful weekend here. Nothing planned for three whole days... not even sports! YAY! I get to bum around and clean up a little (oh, the house is a mess) and maybe even take a daily shower! We are also SO SUPER fortunate to have a great bunch of friends. My neighbor Joanna organized a meal plan for us. We have people bringing meals nearly everyday for 2 weeks. Wow! So far we've received from the Garmans and Pasqualones... thank you so so so much! It's been wonderful. By afternoon, I've been beat, so the meals have been fantastic!

A last hello to my family... if they can read this from Alaska! Mom, Dad, Tracy and Tim all boarded their Alaskan cruise ship this afternoon and called to say it's going fine so far. I guess Dad survived another 8 hours or so in the air! I envy the relaxation they are enjoying... but not the weather. They said it was in the 50's in Seattle. I'd much rather have our 70's. Oh... but as in tribute to you... I watched 4 episodes of Gray's Anatomy today (Seattle Grace Hospital) to catch up on all the weeks I missed. :-) Everytime I saw the Space Needle, I thought of you guys. Have a good trip! Wish I could be pampered like that! Heck, with 4 kids, I doubt we'll get on another cruise ship till Grace graduates from college.... or we hit the lottery.

A Chinese Folk Song

This was sung to us at the Northern Chinese restaurant we visited (where we sat on a raised-up round bench with our feet under the table in the corner).

Photo Journey Part Three: More Guangzhou

And, our last series of photos for now....

Grace took a photo of Mike. Sorry, Mike... you were the photographer on much of this trip seeing as though I had a 3-year-old attached to me. I don't have many of you!! I'm sure PapPap has more.

Mommy and Gracelynn leaving KFC. It was a normal KFC... no chicken feet there.

Mommy and Gracelynn awaiting Grace's medical exam. Other than not wanting to stand on the scale and get measured, she did great!

Mike blowing bubbles in the room at the White Swan. Grace loved these! See all the packages in the background... we bought a LOT.

The famous "Red Couch" photo of the little girls from our group. The two to the left (Grace and Hannah) were 3. The others are between 1 and 2 years old.

This is our traveling group from CWA. We all had a great time in China and met some wonderful people! Five new US citizens.

During a visit to a Bonsai Garden (of which Christy and Grace stayed home), Mike found a little piece of color in a very green garden... a lotus flower.

This is a view of the lights along the Pearl River, from the BBQ restaurant at the White Swan Hotel.

This is very typical in China... deliveries made on bicycles. Sometimes the bicycles were carrying 2x as much as seen here. Amazing.

The Guangzhou Opera House, as seen from the dinner cruise ship.

Some carvings on a bamboo plant at the Bonsai Garden. Apparently it was a curse, literally translated as "Big Turtle". ooooh!

Alien eyes? Nope. Phone booths. Unlike America, these are found everywhere!

Mommy and Grace posing on the dog statue. Aunt Tracy, it's not a bulldog, but it's close enough!

Our favorite restaurant in Guangzhou... Lucy's! I think we sat at this table three of the five times we visited.

Lucy's, from outside.

Gracelynn, posing all sweet at the airport on our way home. Yep, she's ours!

Photo Journey Part Two: Guangzhou

Here are more photos from our China trip in Guangzhou:

Christy, anxiously awaiting the moment we meet Grace. We're sitting in the Registration Room of the Civil Affairs office until they bring the girls in.

Christy and Grace moments after leaving the Civil Affairs Office. Grace came to me just fine when it was time to go. Maybe it had a lot to do with that lollipop she was so happy to have.

PapPap and Gracelynn on her first morning with the Hollars. She is newly bathed and dressed and ready to go.

Christy, looking at the McDonald's menu before being waited on. :-) You could, of course, order at the registers. But with our big group, this was easier.

Okay... I SWEAR IT! Behind that awful reflection of a window blind, is the Olympic Torch! I waited and waited at that window, hearing the roaring chants outside the restaurant. Just when I caught a glimpse of the torch itself, I snapped the camera. Darn that reflection!!!

This is in a garden courtyard inside the Family Chen Temple. There were very intricate carvings along the roofline. This temple was built by the Chen Family as a way to record their history and preserve their heirlooms.
This is a group of middle-aged women playing something like Hacky Sack, only with a feathery shuttlecock. We bought a shuttlecock to bring home. We may have been "robbed" with the fee of 10 yuan... but that translates to $1.40 or so. Anyone wanna play?

This is the famerse Guangzhou guide Elvin. He is explaining the various dried herbs and creatures that the Chinese use in their foods to promote health. His wife is working on her MD and is specializing in acupuncture. When he mentioned that she gets this stuff free at the hospital, Mike decided he never wanted to visit the hospital.

This is a pedestrian street. It's like Times Square on acid. Lights, flatscreens, and thousands and thousands of people everywhere!!! The green umbrellas were a promotion for a new bottled green tea. We tried it (figuring I was beginning to like tea in China)... and I quickly decided green tea is NOT for me.

Mike bought me a beautiful bouquet of flowers on Mother's Day! Gorgeous! Here is Gracelynn and I on Mother's Day.This is one of my favorite local shopkeepers on Shamian Island, Jordon. His shop was easy to navigate... NO PRESSURE. Whew! Most places had no prices and people following you around, trying to get you to buy more than you intended. I hated that. Mr. Jordon is a Christian and was so easy-going. He made this beautiful sign for me with Gracelynn's name and some Chinese symbols on it. He also described her hometown to me, since we couldn't go. Needless to say, I bought a LOT here.

This is PapPap in front of Starbucks! I love Starbucks. The pricing was pretty comparable to back home. And the Caramel Macchiato was just as wonderful!

Here is Gracelynn on the Shamian Island Park's playground. She pretty much stayed in this position the entire time... had no desire to move or play. Just watched the others.

Photo Journey

Well, we've promised photos, so I'll post a bunch. I was planning to just go back and insert photos to previous posts, but that may confuse too many people, including myself... so here goes. These are from Beijing:Here are Mike and Christy in the new terminal at Beijing Airport. We just passed through Immigration and are heading down for the luggage. This terminal was huge and beautiful.

This was our first dinner in China at a local restaurant to the hotel. We met up with 3 of the 4 other families that night for dinner. Everything was served family-style on a large Lazy Susan. Pretty much the only drinks served at any of the restaurants in China were: tea (of course), bottled water, Sprite and Coke (sometimes), and Chinese beer. And in China, it's unusual to refill drinks. Sometimes one 8oz. glass was all you got, unless they were kind to us Westerners and gave enough for two glasses. A typical Chinese napkin is about the size and consistency of a Kleenex. Really... they must not be a messy folk.

Mike took this photo... thought it was funny to see a normal Budweiser sign in Beijing!

PapPap, Christy, and Mike in the middle of the Forbidden City. What beautiful architecture! If you want to learn more, grab the recent copy of National Geographic featuring CHINA. On the back of the map of China, there is a huge map of the Forbidden City with lots of neat information.

Relic protected. No scratch. Apparently in their long exhaustive restoration of the Forbidden City, people are still putting graffiti on the walls. How sad.

This is a 4 star rated toilet sign. Ha! I beg to differ. They were Squatty Potties! Learned real quick to avoid those... and to always bring along my travel Charmin pack. Our hotels were well stocked... but no restaurant or tourist place ever had toilet paper.

Christy and Mike in the Imperial Garden.

Just a look at a very common means of transportation... bikes.
We found this interesting. See the birdcage in the tree. Older men would come to the parks with their caged birds and hang them in the trees. The men would then play various games and talk. The parks were always loud with birds chattering. Sometimes the birds would even be allowed out of the cages to sit on the men's hands.

What I was so looking forward to seeing: The Bird's Nest (National Stadium for the Olympics). This is as close as we could get. All Olympic venues are still in the works and are heavily guarded by military. I'll just play Wii's Mario vs. Sonic at the Olympics to see what it probably looks like inside. :0) Sorry for the cloudy photo... it was taken from inside the bus.

Ah.... the Biggee! The one thing everyone must see when they visit China... the Great Wall. And Great it was! What you see here is not even the height to which Mike climbed... it continued on another several hundred steps.

Here are Mike and Christy at the bottom, after just entering. Little did we know what we were about to encounter. Unfortunately it was with this shot that our camera battery died!!! PapPap has the only shots from higher up... we'll have to get those loaded someday soon.

See this tiny little bottle and the tiny little cup. I almost died when I thought this was all the wine you were allowed. Ha! This is Chinese Rice Wine. 56% alcohol! One little swig and it cleared up everyone's sinuses. That was it for us!

Isolation Room

Friday night went fine.  Surprisingly, Gracelynn took to her new room and her own bed just beautifully!  I laid her down and allowed her to play with a book and her "JingJing" (the Olympic Panda mascot) with only the soft nightlight on.  She fell asleep just fine with no tears.  That was one of our biggest fears was that she wouldn't like to sleep alone.  Whew!  After just 3 hours of sleep for myself (felt a cold coming on plus had jet lag), I went in to check on Grace at 6am.  She was lying there awake.  I encouraged her to get up.  She did and started to play at her little desk with her Color Wonder markers and books.  Tommy came in and joined her.  Then Reagan.  It was like they'd all known each other for years.  She blended in beautifully with the kids.  We got dressed and came downstairs for some muffins. 

A short time later, my mom arrived to meet Gracelynn and pick up my dad.  Only she also surprised me by bringing my sister Tracy and brother-in-law Tim.  I was so excited... I really had hoped they'd come soon to meet Grace.  Grace took well to everyone... at least on a casual basis.  She did have a minor fall (down 3 steps outside) when she slipped on bubble mixture that had spilled.  Uncle Tim and my mom were able to pick her up and bring her inside to me.  She was fine... just a little shook up.

During my 29 hours of travel, I sneezed a lot.  I figured my seasonal allergies were just aggrevated, so I blew it off.  By the time we got home, I started in with a runny nose.  So I took Nyquil at 2:30am on Friday.  By 6am, I was wide awake and took more cold medicine since it wasn't getting better... and began Zicam every 3 hours.  A few hours later, I started with a wicked sore throat, so I started on Zithromax (a prescription I had gotten for our trip... just in case) since it was a Saturday morning, and I knew I couldn't get to a doctor till Monday.  Within another hour, I had serious chills, a fever, and felt sick to my stomach.  After a few false alarm runs to the bathroom to throw up, I finally gave in.  Mom took me to the emergency room.  I was really sick.  

We got in quickly... fortunate that no one else was in the waiting room.  The nurse took my vitals and got the story from me.  After a few tests (flu and strept), she put me in a bed in the back.  Within a few minutes, another nurse brought me a mask.  "My prize" for having flu-like symptoms, she said.  I laughed.  Next thing I know, I was being wheeled away from that main room.  Isolation!  All it took was me saying I just arrived from China to scare everyone.  So, I was placed in a solitary room.  The doctors and nurses from then on out arrived in my room wearing masks and gowns.  They even gave my mom a mask too.  I told my mom, "If they return wearing the spacesuits from ET, run!"  The doctor said he was calling the Infectious Diseases Department to see what tests they needed to run.  Next time a nurse came in with a rolling potty (oh what fun) and a table full of blood cultures, needles and bandages.  They inserted an IV, took two bottles of blood and had me pee.  Since I wasn't allowed out of the room, I had to use the rolling toilet.  I told my mom.... "Geesh... I can't get a normal toilet to save my life.  First the squatty potties, and now a non-flushing one!"  

The Xray technician brought the Xray machine to my room and did a chest Xray in the room (since I wasn't allowed to leave).  Oh man.   I asked the tech if I was giving them all some excitement today.  He laughed.  I said, "Now how often does a scare like this occur?"  He said, "Oh not often.... maybe once a year."  I told him I really didn't want to be in the papers!  

I think I had told 4 people that day my story.... 2 weeks in China.... in Beijing, in Guangzhou, stopover in HongKong, etc., etc.  No, my daughter wasn't sick.  No, I wasn't in rural China... only major cities.  No, I didn't come across anyone who was sick at least not like this.... blah, blah, blah.

About 2.5 hours after I arrived, I was sent home.  The flu test, RSV test and strept test were all negative.  The other scary tests were still not back, but they didn't think there was a problem.  The doctor said it was probably just some virus I picked up on the plane or from someone in China.  No biggee.  My fever had dropped a little with the Tylenol, so he said to just keep up with a fever reducer and cold medicine to help me feel better.  

So, I finally was allowed to leave my little isolation room.  LOL

I called Mike on our way home to say that they were transporting me to the nearby bigger hospital for more tests.  He didn't like my little joke.

I came home to find Grace filthy from playing outside so much.  Apparently it didn't bother her one bit that I was not home.  She played just great with the kids and her uncle, aunt and grandparents.  We decided it was best not to introduce the neighbor kids just yet... maybe today or tomorrow.

Today I'm feeling rather miserable.  Nothing bad, just a cold or something.  Mike's parents took the three kids to church.  Mike and I and Grace slept pretty much non-stop from 4pm yesterday till about 6am today.  I guess Mike was up for a couple of hours last night... but all in all, we got a lot of sleep!  Whew!  

The kids are taking well to Gracelynn.  At 6am, Tommy crawled into bed with me and said, "I love Gracelynn."  It was so cute!  Oh, how I missed his little hugs and cuddles!

Thank you to everyone for the good wishes and prayers.  It seems as though we're going to do fine.  Gracelynn obviously has a long way to go to be 100% comfortable and to get the hang of our American ways, but she's doing great so far.  She's been little Miss Nosey lately and getting into all sorts of things.  She just knocked all sorts of papers on the floor... because she can, I guess... and she's eating an apple.  She has successfully gotten apple juice all over our coffee table.  How can one even do that with a little apple?

She's quickly learning that Aspen (our Westie) is not a child-lover.  :)  Aspen is a good dog... don't get me wrong.  But her tolerance for kids is long gone.  If a child approaches her while she's trying to rest or touches her while she's eating or pulls on her fur, she snaps at him/her.  Grace happened to bump Aspen (accidentally) while Aspen was dozing off on the sofa, and she snapped at Grace.  That's good... she'll learn quickly to leave her alone.  Grace has been fascinated by Aspen, but doing things like throwing toys at her and such.  Maybe this will calm her down.

She still takes to Mommy more than the others at certain times (bedtime, baths, potty), but she plays well with all the family.

Feel free to comment or express your wishes for her.  We plan to print out this blog one day for Gracelynn to keep as her adoption story.

Home Safe

We are back in Virginia safe and sound and Grace is now a U.S. citizen! It was a very long trip - something like 28 hours of travel - but God blessed us with an amazingly well behaved little girl. Grace cried briefly on each of the first two flights because she was not really excited about the seat belts. But other than that she just slept and played quietly with two or three toys. Incredible!

She has met her brothers and sister as well as my parents. Christy's mom will be here tomorrow. Grace is still just beginning to warm up to everyone but I don't think it will take long. She did play some with her siblings and was actually quite upset when I told her she had to leave their room because they need to get to sleep. (1am is a little past their bed time.)

Well... I can feel the floor swaying like and airplane, so I think it is time for bed. We will post more details later.

- Mike

Two more days...

Well, the countdown is on. Only one more full day here in Guangzhou and then we leave bright and early Friday morning (5:15 from the hotel!!) We're so ready to get home... not so much to TRAVEL home... just to BE home. Gracelynn has been a stinker all day. She does great with PapPap and Daddy in the rooms... playing, horsing around, giggling, coloring, you name it. But bathroom time, shower time, and ANYtime in public... she's Mama's girl. That's good in one sense since she'll be with me most of the day, but she's wearing me out. Just because she prefers being with me doesn't mean she's an easy girl with me! Tonight we went on a dinner cruise along the Pearl River. If you haven't seen photos of the Pearl River, search on youtube.com to find some neat videos of the neon lights. The food was almost awful (first time so far on this trip)... but the sights were beautiful. I was a little shocked to see that they had TV screens playing the entire time, loudly... all in Chinese... and all just the news. It was a little distracting. Once dinner was over, we ventured to the top deck to take in the pretty lights. Chun would go to no one else, and since there was little to prevent her from going overboard, I had to hold her. All 35 pounds of her on a moving boat with no seating up top. So, after about 15 minutes, I took her to the potty (no Western style toilets this time!) and back to our seats. She was a real pistol... just bouncing around, kicking, hitting... after a little while of tolerating it, I finally told her no and held her to prevent her from kicking the nice tables and cabinets. She hated that. Screamed and cried for the last 15 minutes of our cruise. I got her calmed down finally just as we were docking. Whew... I personally couldn't wait to get back on that bus! I think Dad and Mike enjoyed the trip though.

This morning after breakfast, we went to visit Mr. Jordon's shop. Mr. Jordon is a Christian shopkeeper and is very low pressure (unlike most places), so we enjoy visiting him. He talked awhile with Mike and Dad... mostly comparing American visitors to French visitors. Let's just say that his viewpoints are similar to many American's viewpoints on that subject. :-) He was very sweet though. We bought a ton of things. He was careful to even double check every item and re-counted our total to be fair. I'll miss visiting with him. If anyone is able to come to Shamian Island, please stop in and say hello to Mr. Jordon. After that shop, Mike stopped and bought us a new suitcase. Polo... for less than $20 American dollars... LOL. Most people say it should get us home... but may not be usable after that. Ha ha ha. That's fine... it just needs to carry all of our new purchases! You can get nearly anything here... $20 iPods (so we hear), $10 Rolexes, etc. We just needed the suitcase, so that was our only "fake" purchase.

Today we had our Consulate Appointment for the Visa. Our guide does all the legwork with that appointment. We simply needed to stay in the room in case he had any questions. Once our hour of waiting was up, we dressed up Gracelynn in her Chinese silk gown and went downstairs for photos. I was so dreading this. It's traditional to gather the children from your goup and take a photo of them on the nice red couch in the second floor of the White Swan Hotel. Although Grace did love her beautiful blue dress and new shoes (bought this morning... whew... found some!)... I was so afraid of her reaction to sitting on the red couch with the other 4 babies in our group. So far on this trip, she has played with NO kids and usually withdraws when she sees them. However, the Lord was watching over us today and gave her some unexpected patience. :-) She sat on the couch just fine while several of the other babies cried. No smiles from Grace, but it was better than I expected. :-) We then all gathered together for a whole group shot in front of the waterfall. Haven't looked at it yet... hope it turned out well.

After the photos, we ate at the same restaurant, the Black Swan, that we saw the torch from earlier in our trip. This time we added 10 new faces to our dinner, since the other families are now with us. :-) It was nice. This restaurant must specialize in dumplings, because they are fabulous! Lunch was great... better than our dinner, that's for sure!

This afternoon, Mama and Grace crashed for awhile in the room while Daddy finished up some shopping. One of my requests was an Olympic shirt for me. He found it but it was the wrong size. We need to go back sometime tomorrow to exchange it.

Our day on Friday is going to be nuts. Three flights, mid-cabin super-cramped seating, a 3 year old who is feisty and doesn't take to sitting still very well, and about a total of 27 full hours of traveling. OH please..... PRAY FOR US!!!! Especially since Grace will go to no one in public except me... I'm going to go out of my flipping mind. Where is the valium when you need it?

I'm not sure how our weeks-to-come are going to go. First we have to fly halfway around the world with Grace, then we need to introduce her to a brand-new home, new pet and the fact that she has three siblings to live with. We've been trying to get her to understand this, but I'm not sure how much of it is sinking in. We show her photos of our other kids and she even repeated their names for me. However, to her they are just photos.

Saturday may be a messy day for us since we won't even arrive at home till very late Friday night. If you live nearby and don't see us, don't be surprised! After that, we need to start falling into a schedule... not sure we'll make it to church on Sunday, but Monday brings us back to a normal schedule. Mike goes to work, I take the 2 older ones to school, and then on Tuesday Tommy goes to school. Grace will be forced into our American life quickly, so who's to know how many dozens of meltdowns we'll be facing in the weeks to come. She's never seen a seatbelt or a carseat; she's ridden in a stroller, but not a double stroller; she's never been in a normal house... only an orphanage and a hotel; she only knows three of us and has never had siblings; she thinks nothing of making tons of noise so church may be a tough situation for awhile... fortunately we have a cry area and I'm no longer working in the kids program; she's never slept in a room alone before; she's now used to a full spread at breakfast... (what will she do with an Eggo?); she's eaten very little American food, but at the rate she's going, she'll eat nearly anything; she's learning a tiny bit of sign language and really isn't communicating well; she doesn't ask to go potty or for water or for food; she's still in pull-ups because of that... the orphanage swore she was potty-trained, but I can't get her to tell us when she needs to go; she has never ridden in a grocery cart or seen a store that large; she doesn't like crowds; ... oh the list of trials yet to face will go on and on and on if I let it. I know God will pull us through. I pray for strength since my nerves are almost shot.

We ask that when you do see us and Gracelynn around the home or in town that you please take care to do a few things. One... do not approach her and attempt to pick her up. I guarantee she will fling her head around and scream and stiffen her body and begin a tantrum. She's going to need time to warm up to people. Two... don't attempt to touch her without expecting her to turn her head on you and grunt. She'll now play with us in a goofy fun way, but only when she's in the mood to do so. Three... don't expect smiles and giggling. We know she's capable of it, but the timing is always when she's in a comfortable place (our hotel room) and when she's wide awake. Four... if you do manage to get her attention and play with her, expect her to take it to extreme. She gets very wound up quickly and can start to do things roughly (throwing things, hitting, etc.) We noticed when she interacted with Connor, another boy from her orphanage, that she instinctively began throwing things and trying to hit him. We figure this behavior must have happened often at her orphanage.

If you'd like to visit, feel free. Just call ahead of time in case we're crashing. Jet lag here took me about a week to recover from... and half of that time was with no children. At home, I'm expecting it'll take awhile longer.

We aren't trying to scare anyone off... just to prepare you for what you may see. Grace is a sweet, beautiful little girl that can be a lot of fun. She's bright (remembers things easily) and meticulous (picks up after herself well). However she has had a tough 3.5 years of life. We know that our family can bring an amazing new outlook to her life, but it's going to take some time for her to bond with us, to trust us, to learn our language and our ways, and to realize that this life is here to stay. Right now, we can't even begin to understand what may be running through her head. So, my longterm outlook is a wonderful, pleasant, easy-going family... but for now, it may be chaos.

Tomorrow we are visiting the bonsai garden in the morning, having pizza delivered for lunch, and then going to pick up Grace's visa/passport and bidding farewell to one of our group families, the Nations. It's a busy day.... somewhere in there we need to pack and try to make sure our bags are all less than 50 pounds apiece. Yikes! I think we're bringing home twice as much as we took with us!

If I do not post again while in Guangzhou, we'll post again in the US. Again, prayers are much appreciated. Everytime you think of us, say a little prayer. Everytime you see a plane in the sky, say a little prayer. Everytime you hear a baby cry, say a little prayer. We'll be needing it!!!

Love, Christy

Some Pictures

Here are just a few pictures of Gracelynn. We will post lots more when we get home.

Left to right, top to bottom:

• Gracelynn having fun at (of all places) KFC.
• Gracelynn and dad at the park.
• Gracelynn sporting her cool shades on a shopping trip.
• Gracelynn and mom doing some more shopping.
• Gracelynn hanging out with PapPap at the Temple of the Family Chen.

Ohhh... and here is what was on display outside of the restaurant we ate at today.

And here is one of the dishes that showed up at the table, roast pigeon! Yum!