We Have Grace - But What a Process

I originally sent this e-mail early this morning upon arriving in Guangzhou but it bounced back due to the file size with the photos. Enclosed is only the text version and I will attempt to send each of the photos individually to post to the blog site.

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

In two days of sightseeing in Beijing we saw and experienced Tienanmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Great Wall of China, a traditional Chinese medicine clinic, a Peking Duck Restaurant, a Chinese acrobatic show, the Ming Tombs, and we saw the sight of the 2008 summer Olympics - ie. the Bird's Nest and the Water Cube. We completed all of our sightseeing in Beijing last Saturday (Apr. 17) and headed for Hangzhou on Sunday. I had never heard of the city before receiving our travel arrangements even though it is a city of 6 million people.

Monday morning we traveled to the Civil Affairs office in Hangzhou where we met and received Grace. Also with her were the orphanage director, the orphanage assistant director and Grace's nanny. According to the director, this was only their 2nd adoption from the Jiaxing Social Welfare Institute. It wasn't anything like the stories you hear where families congregate in a hotel conference room and receive their child one by one as the kids are screaming while being transferred from orphanage staff to parents. Sheryl and the kids had time to play with Grace along side her nanny and people that she was familiar with. During this entire process, we were filling out papers and signing documents for the China legal portion of the adoption. The orphanage staff had prepared a bag with pajamas, an extra set of clothes, and diapers. They had also given Grace a pink bunny back pack with some of Grace's things inside. We were surprised to see the two photos that we had e-mailed to China several months ago. They were printed out as 5X7's and laminated and we could tell that they had been used by the orphanage staff to show Grace and tell her about her new family. How amazing to see the preparation that they had put into preparing her for this big step. We would soon find out how Grace is scared of strangers which made the transition even more remarkable since she never cried or put up a fuss. The orphanage staff quietly snuck out of the building while we played with Grace for a few minutes more. While we were leaving the Civil Affairs office, Grace called for her nanny a couple of times then quietly went with us. She had been well prepared and did not seem the least bit afraid of us. The rest of the day was filled with a trip to the grocery store, then to the photo store for her passport photos and then back to the hotel for her first bath as part of our family.

Grace slept the entire night that first night with us on Monday. While in the hotel room, she would laugh and play with the kids and run between our two hotel rooms sometimes laughing and yelling at the top of her lungs - still not upset or ever crying. We noticed that she would suddenly become quiet when we went into the hallway or anywhere outside of our hotel room and always wanted Sheryl or I to hold her. She continues to be very shy and quiet when we are outside of our hotel rooms but is very outgoing and always laughing when the six of us are alone in the hotel rooms. We purchased a stroller but so far Grace will have nothing to do with being put into the stroller since she currently needs the security of being held by us. Tuesday we had a two hour drive to the city where her orphanage is located (Jiaxing). We had to go to the local police station to apply for her passport. We were a little concerned because the same three staff people from her orphanage met us to travel to the police station to complete the passport application process. We weren't sure how Grace would respond when she saw them again. All went well and we followed them back to the orphanage as we had requested to see the orphanage but were denied access into the orphanage by the provincial leaders. We were allowed inside the gates to the orphanage grounds and we were invited inside the administrative portion of the orphanage as we were told that two of Grace's best friends from the orphanage wanted to say goodbye to her. We spent about an hour seeing a few of the kids from the orphanage and meeting all of Grace's nannies. We were able to take a lot of photos. The orphanage was a nice place with people who really cared about the kids - again, not the horror stories that we hear in the US about Chinese orphanages. The transition out of the orphanage went smoothly. Wednesday was sightseeing, Thursday was a free day which worked out great since Madeline got to celebrate her 11th birthday in China on Thursday. We had McDonald's, Pizza Hut, and Kentucky Fried Chicken while in Hangzhou (since we started getting a little tired of Chinese food). It was a chore to order food when we were not sure exactly what we were ordering or if the people understood us. Friday we had more paperwork with the provincial notary and then went to the local police station to pick up Grace's passport. It's hard to explain all of the paperwork and legal details that we had to complete before leaving Hangzhou. Grace has continued to sleep the entire night every night she has been with us. How amazing is that and what a blessing.

We arrived in Guangzhou about 3 hours ago and checked in to the White Swan Hotel where most adoptive families stay. Another family from our church (the Wallens) are also here and completing an adoption the same time as we are. It's now 2:30am Saturday morning and we have a medical exam at 8:30am on Saturday. Now starts all of the paper work for the US customs and immigration portion of the adoption. I am once again using Sarah's CVCA e-mail account since I am not able to directly access our blogsite. I have attached several pictures which I thing will show above this post. One picture of Sheryl and Grace is from the day that we received Grace. There are also photos taken after Grace's first bath with us, in the hotel room laughing with Sheryl, a photo with Matthew and Madeline, and a photo from the orphanage with two of Grace's friends. I should be able to post more within the next few days since I will have better internet access here in Guangzhou. Good night to all and thanks again for your prayers. We can definitely tell that much prayer support has lined our path to this point. Please continue.

Kevin