Pictures from the Orphanage

These pictures are the result of a gift from our friends in Louisville, Brad & Holly Clark, who decided to send Anna Kate a birthday cake for her first birthday in China. Holly made the arrangements with a lady who does this service in China. On her birthday, the cake arrived along with a camera. The day we recieved Anna Kate, the nanny gave us the camera to take back home. We just got the pictures developed today and were so happy to see these wonderful pictures that were taken on that very important day. These pictures give us all another piece of the puzzle of her past for which we are very grateful. One of the pictures has a picture of Taia, who was adopted by one of the other families in our group. We will send those pics to her family for them to enjoy as well. Thanks again Brad and Holly for your thoughtful and very special gift that we will cherish for a lifetime.

Anna Kate Comes Home ...

Well, we are finally home after about 22 hours of traveling. When we arrived in Detroit (the first US landing), Anna Kate officially became a full fledged american citizen. We were greeted at the airport by some of our dear friends from church holding a big beautiful sign with signatures and greetings from our lifegroup class members. They also took us home and to our surprise, had another sign inside our home along with a nice warm home cooked dinner waiting for us to devour. They also collected numerous diapers and baby wipes from our class members and also informed us that dinners have been scheduled to arrive over the course of the next several days. We are so thankful for the good, dear friends that have shown such support over the course of our adoption journey. You guys are awesome !!! Anna Kate is doin' great as she is getting acquainted with all of her new surroundings. She is even beginning to understand some english. She knows "kiss" and "clap hands"and says "a dog" when she sees Nadia. She loves to be held and talked to. She is very observant and loves to go around the house pointing at things and loves it when we tell her what everything is. She also is a very good eater and one of her favorite foods is cooked brocolli. She is getting adjusted to her sleeping schedule, although she seems to always wake up around 2 am and wants to play. More pics coming soon.

Arrived in Guangzhou

We got into Guangzhou on Friday and have been busy getting Anna Kate her physical exam and visa pictures. Everyone is doing great. We all miss Nanchang a lot. We really enjoyed the sites and sounds and food of that fast paced city that had a mix of old and new China. The people are great here and we feel very welcomed where ever we go. Anna Kate is doing great. She is now used to everyone in our family and enjoys being held by all of us. Her personality is very out going. She loves to explore everything around her and is very curious about many things. She loves to play and laugh and just have plain simple fun. Maylee is a wonderful big sister and enjoys playing with her new sister very much. Maylee also is enjoying all the different foods and the different sight seeing activities. She is an excellent traveler. We all have been very healthy throughout our trip and hope it continues for the next few days. We miss everyone and we are all looking forward to coming home. Talk to you all real soon.

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