Praise God from Whom ALL Blessing Flow!

It's crazy how time seemed to go so slow while we were in the paperwork process to get Luyana, but then as we left this morning to go meet her, I said to Mark, "This is all happening so fast, I'm not ready!" We were taken to the Civil Affairs Office in Nanjing and we waited. I kept moving things....this pen seems better over here, this bag should probably be on the table, it makes more sense to sit in this chair...

In the van on the way to the Civil Affairs Office:

Looking out the window to see if she was coming:

Civil Affairs Office:

Sign in the Civil Affairs Office:

And then she was there, it all happened so fast, I couldn't even get a picture of her coming in! Our guide did take some video, which I can share later. She held her hands right out to me but after a few minutes, she started crying and that lasted a good hour. I felt so helpless, knowing the weight of the moment. And the crying only intensified every time Mark looked at or touched her. I resigned to the fact that her being happy to be with either of us might take some time and work.

 

 

 

We took a quick trip to the store for some diapers and headed back to our hotel room. She really perked up then! She started walking back and forth to Mark and me and started smiling! And it was the first interaction she had with Mark that didn't make her cry. She is not very steady on her feet; I don't think she's been walking very long.

 

I can already tell the girl loves clothes! She really seemed to like this outfit when I put it on her, which was adorable. We bought her a new pair of shoes today and she insisted on wearing them in the room. Also adorable.

 

In China, children drink powdered milk. Of course the can we were advised to buy was all in Chinese. We asked the front desk to help us figure out how much powder in the bottle. How many people does it take to figure out how make a bottle... (apparently, at least 3, as long as we have access to Google...)

 

We found a restaurant that had fried rice and as we were waiting for our food, she started playing games with Mark. She is so animated, fun, playful, and cute. She was laughing so hard and she LOVES Mark. If you tell her to say "mama", she will say nothing. If you tell her to say "Baba" (how they say daddy in Chinese), she will loudly say "baBA!" and look at Mark beaming. She thinks he's hilarious, which is good, someone needs to! ;)

 

We are beyond grateful to God that He chose us to be her parents. I can't even put to words how it makes me feel. We are so undeserving to be the recipients of her precious spirit. I cannot wait to learn more and more about her and help her to know that she can trust us and we will never leave. Goodnight from China!