Last Post From Guangzhou

We are finally getting ready to leave tomorrow evening! We have really enjoyed our time here in Guangzhou, but we are more than ready to get home to see our boys. The last 2 days have been fairly slow paced but productive. Yesterday, Anna Grace finally decided that the pool was not going to hurt her, and she cautiously played in the water for about an hour. When we came back to the room she actually got into the bathtub without screaming. She was eager to take a bath again this evening. That is a lot of progress from the screaming baby that we had a few days ago!

We had our consulate appointment today. We had to take a bus to the consulate office about 40 minutes away. The room was filled with 40 kids and families all getting ready to travel to the United States. It was really noisy and we had to listen closely to hear them call Anna Grace's Chinese name over a speaker to finalize our paperwork. Then all the families had to take an oath. Once Anna Grace lands on U.S. soil, she will officially become a U.S. citizen.

I am teary eyed as I type this message tonight. This has been such a long road for us, and we are finally ready to go home with our little girl. We have waited so long for this precious child. I already can not imagine life without her. God has chosen such a perfect child for our family. She is so loving, sweet, outgoing, and sassy all at the same time. She does have some minor delays that we will work on, but she is so smart and quick to learn. Tonight as I was tucking her into bed, I was singing "Jesus Loves Me," and she was doing the motions to "Itsy Bitsy Spider" while I sang! Then she started a round of "Jesus Loves Me" in her own little baby babble. Sometimes she will spend an hour or more babbling what we think is a mixture of Chinese and baby babble. She is going to fit right in with Alex's love to talk! We feel so blessed to have Anna Grace a part of our family.

Since I don't know if I will get to post again once we make it to Hong Kong, I want to be sure to thank all of the people who have supported us. My mom has been amazing in her willingness to sacrific her vacation time to take care of Cole & Alex. Kevin & Elizabeth have also been so giving in their time babysitting (and getting teeth repaired!). Ronnie & Dena are keeping the boys for us tonight and have been so great about the time that Mike has taken off of work. We are also so thankful for everyone that has helped out behind the scenes and for those who have prayed for us. We hope that everyone will continue to pray for us as we travel home and then try to adjust to the time zone and life with another child in the house. I will try to post in the next few days and add some more pictures.