Busy Week!

Daddy's Girl for sure

Must be Braham's Lullaby b/c I'm putting Ali asleep!

Poor Erin'sbloodshot eyes after our long flight

My first chocolate - The pics speak for themselves!


Today it's just me and the girls...all three! Brian and Quinn are off on a much needed Daddy-son day. They are in Altlanta catching an afternoon Braves game and also fitting in a visit to the LEGO store. Gracie had her first visit to the library and our favorite coffee hangout - Leopard Forest. She, of course, behaved like an angel!


Monday was her first official pediatrician's appointment. After having her ears cleaned out last week, she was not too happy to be back in that office! She had 2 immunizations, and 5 little vials of blood drawn - poor baby! I had to shed some tears myself when they had to draw blood in the lab. I was so grateful for a skilled technician who found a perfect vein right away, and performed her job pretty quickly. The doctor called yesterday to tell me that every test run (17 in all) were all negative -Thank you God! I'm so glad that's over with!

Tuesday Brian and I took Gracie to visit a surgeon in Spartanburg. Once again, it was overwhelming to hear of all the surgeries that Gracie will be facing at some point, but we were impressed with this particular surgeon and his knowledge of lip/palate surgeries. He travels with the Smile Train and has performed countless lip and palate surgeries in many countries - China included. You can tell he loves what he does, which is basically changing the lives of these children by such a simple surgery. He told us that he recently was able to perform a lip correction on a 45 year old woman in China. She had worn a mask her whole life to hide her defect, and for the first time is able to show her face. Isn't that awesome?! We will meet with another surgeon in Charlotte in 2 weeks, and will need to decide which one we will proceed with. We want to hear God's direction clearly in this. We could potentially be looking at her first surgery being done in August. She will haves tubes put in her ears at that time as well.



Last evening Brian and I were looking at pictures of Gracie in her orphanage. She now has such a bright sparkle in her eyes that wasn't present in those photos. We also noticed that when we first received her, and in almost every one of her pictures, she did this nervous little twitch with her hands. She hasn't done that once since we've been home, and we can only chalk that up to God's grace in allowing her to feel safe, loved and secure in our home. People have told us "She's so lucky"...We are the ones who are truly blessed beyond words.




"A Father to the fatherless is God in His holy dwelling.
God sets the lonely in families."
Psalm 68:5,6