Gotcha!

Well we tried a previous post but it didn't make it...our previous hotel didn't allow access to the posting site so we tried an email post, which I now see didn't make it in. It was saved as a draft so I will try to publish it after I finish this one. So now I will tell some things out of order. Also I can't get pictures in yet :-( but I will try at our next hotel in Guangzhou in a few days.

Yesterday afternoon we went to the local Office of Civil Affairs in Chongqing and met Faith! She is such a beuatiful little China doll, she looks just like her previous pictures except her hair is a bit longer now. She was standing quietly drinking a bottle, and she quickly warmed up to us. Now we have read that adoptive children often warm up to one parent first, often enough the father--which is what happened in our case. She immediately came to me (Brian) and essentially wouldn't let me leave her presence till she finally fell asleep in our hotel room about 9:00 PM! She warmed up to our kids too (especially McKenzie) and soon showed us how animated she can be. She giggles, plays, even hits when she's excited. We've seen her temper too, true enough to her age of 2 years. Some pleasant surprises: she can feed herself mostly (except she's not accustomed to western utensils yet), she is a very good nonverbal communicator, and--in some ways best of all--she's potty trained!! :-) We are having so much fun I can hardly describe it. It's also a relief to have our fees paid so we don't have to carry all that cash around... We even have Faith's Chinese passport; all the official business to do now is basically to get her paperwork from the U.S. Consulate in Guangzhou next week.

This week we are going to spend time visiting Chongqing, a municipality of 8 million in the city and totalling about 30 million in the "metro area" (about20 million are farmers). This is a bright shiny city that rivals Las Vegas in its nighttime color and is probably more flashy than anywhere in New York City.

Barbara has written a long journal entry that we'll have to enter later. Right now Faith is distracted by a Baby Einstein video so that I could leave the room for a bit. Today we are going to visit the local harbor, tomorrow visit the zoo and see baby pandas, and one day we hope to visit Faith's orphanage. Friday we travel to Guangzhou, our last city before leaving China.

Our impression is that things have gone as well as they possibly could--thanks for all your prayers. We feel we can relax a bit having the main part of the trip accomplished (actually meeting Faith finally).

Next post will probably be in about 48 hours. Sorry so late for this first real post from China.

Love, Brian and the fam.