Gracie's birthday party

Her 1st birthday cake

PF Changs

Build-A-Bear

We've been thinking a lot lately about the many "firsts" we have missed with our new daughter. Since we missed Gracie's first birthday in February, we decided that we would go ahead and have our own celebration last month! We want Gracie to know she was honored and celebrated on the occasion of her special day. We ate at PF Changs, and went to the mall to choose her gift. Brian gave each one of our children a stuffed animal of some sort when they were born. We ended up at Build-A-Bear (why, oh why did I not come up w/ that concept years ago...) where Brian chose Gracie's first stuffed bunny. Can I just say that you can drop some big bucks in that store. Who knew stuffed bears needed glasses, underwear and wigs?

Life here has been a whirlwind. Here are some of the things we've been doing...

* Getting our paperwork ready to apply for travel Visas.
* Selling things on Craigslist.
* Buying a new dresser for Gracie on Craigslist (which NOT by coincidence is from the same collection of furniture that was in my room when I was young, and is now in our girls' room!)
Thank you God!
* Painting
* Researching Gracie's special need & talking with local clinics about her future surgeries.
* Going through baby equipment!
* Checking out flight prices for June. (ugh!)
* Sorting items for our yard sale next month.
* Sending a request to be fingerprinted. (For the third time - Go figure!)

Our heads are spinning with things that must be done, but we are so grateful to be in this place. So many of you have offered so many encouraging words, and have given great travel advice. (Thank you Kim and Lori!) We have heard from 3 out of 5 organizations concerning our requests for grant money. Each of those had to turn us down due to lack of funds. We are anxious to hear from the remaining two, and continue to trust God! In fact, someone gave us a check at church this morning to help us bring Gracie home. We are SO grateful! Many of you have also offered items toward our yard sale next month. You are awesome!
We've been given a tentative date of June 4 to fly to Beijing. Be still my heart! We covet your prayers over the next several weeks. God is good!