Grace Lin Jing Xiao

Gracie Lin Jingxiao

September 13

Fuzhou City Children's Welfare Institute

Jiangxi Province

At the moment I don't think I can even tell you how we are feeling! For now, we'll just let you soak in those adorable cheeks and sweet lips! In June she weighed about 15 lbs. She goes to bed at 8 and gets up at 5:00am! She is a good eater, likes to be held but we aren't so sure about how well she sleeps. All of this information is about 2 months old. We also know that she is currently in foster care instead of the orphanage. Will post more as we get it! Oh and Jing means 'gifted woman' and Xiao means 'dawn.' From older posts, you all know what Grace is but Lin means 'a family name' and my middle name is Lynn. :) We will most likely call her Gracie Lin.

This morning Carter and I picked up Parker from school, which he did not expect. I told him that Daddy had a surprise lunch time planned for us. Of course, he went down the list of fun places he wanted to go - Chuck E Cheese, Dave & Busters... When we arrived at the CCAI office, he was asking if we were at an apartment or a doctor and by the time he saw the CCAI sign, John was opening his car door. He read the sing out loud and then said, what about lunch? :) We asked, don't you want to see your little sister's face? He just got a big grin on his face.

Once we were inside the office, Chaunda said that she hated to ask us to wait but she had to talk to someone in the Colorado office before giving us he paperwork. What was 10 more minutes after 5 years, but I was about to burst! It was only about 2 minutes later when she came out with the envelope. We all gathered around a little table and Chaunda placed a red folder on the table. She grinned at us and pulled out this picture at which point, I burst into tears! From the moment I looked at Gracie's sweet little face, she felt familiar to me! God has planned her for this family! John was watching me for reaction and had the biggest smile on his face! I looked over at Parker and he jumped up from the table and went back to the toys on the floor. I think he must have been feeling shy about his emotion and wanted some space. Carter just smiled at her photo and said, 'bebe!'