Happy Belated Birthday, Anna Grace!

We were so excited when our agency gave us our travel dates because we were going to have our "gotcha day" on Anna Grace's birthday. But then we lost our luggage and Anna Grace was grieving so much for her foster mother that we decided to wait to celebrate her birthday. Yesterday she was finally ready to celebrate. At breakfast we ordered a chocolate cake from the hotel for her and our guides arranged for a special candle that is like a flower. When you light each petal it will spin around and play a happy birthday tune followed by a little explosion of flames (we were very startled by the explosion in our hotel room!). While we waited for our cake we wrote invitations to the party on hotel stationary and Anna Grace helped to deliver them to the other 2 families in our travel group. We went to Walmart to look for party plates and napkins, but no one seemed to understand what we were looking for. Then we walked to the park with one of the other families in our travel group. We were quite the spectacle for all of the Chinese people there if you can picture 2 sets of white parents and 4 Chinese children (the other family brought their older 2 adopted Chinese girls and they came to get their little boy). Still, we walked around the lake and then rode the merry-go-round. Anna Grace thought it was so funny that she could see Mommy each time her horse went around the circle. Finally it was time for the party. The 2 other families and our guide all piled into our hotel room. One of the other families brought bubbles and the older girls took turns blowing them for the little kids. Anna Grace really enjoyed everyone singing to her. She laughed her deep belly laugh and clapped her hands over and over. The older girls made her cards and gave her stickers for her birthday. The family with the other little girl Anna Grace's age gave her a toy cell phone, which was a great hit. They even wrapped the gift using the back of hotel stationary and a found glue stick. We finally ended our day with a yummy supper at the noddle restaurant next door.
Anna Grace still prefers her daddy over me, but she does give me hugs and kisses and likes for me to hold her and carry her. We started a little game where Mike will give her something when I am across the room and say "Bring this to Mommy," and she will carry it to me. She is picking up English really fast. Yesterday Mike was snapping his fingers at her trying to get her attention and she turned to him, flicked her little fingers, and made a little snapping sound with her mouth trying to snap also! Each day she finds a new way to make us laugh. I will email birthday pictures to Courtney so that you can see her in her birthday outfit that my mom gave her.