September 20, 2013

Update

Gracie girl is doing so well.  She is a joy and is such a blessing.  She is a sweet, happy, giggly girly girl and we love her so!  She is 10 years old now and in 4th grade.  She struggles a bit with school but really tries so hard.  She was diagnosed with an expressive and receptive language disorder so everything is hard for her.  She gets lots of extra help at school and has had extra language therapy at Childrens.  We have had her evaluated by genetics and though she has 3 chromosomal abnormalities it is difficult to pinpoint a specific diagnosis though with my research so much points to Ehrlers Danlos syndrome.  We will try to get her into a study that could possibly get us a definate diagnosis but for now she is getting the help she needs.  Suffice it to say this girl has blessed us beyond our imaginations.  We thank God every day for the journey that brought our precious girl home.  I will leave you with some pictures.

Another holiday

Christmas 2011

Gracie with 5 of her siblings and mom and Dad

Gracie our little Chinese Beauty
ty

The Whole Gang together for Christmas

Gracie with all 8 of her siblings

Big sister Hannah

Gracie is growing Up!

She is going to be a fashion model, can you tell?

January 20, 2011

Gracie wanted me to update her blog. She is now 7 years old and in 1st grade. She is a beautiful fun, bubbly little girl. She is so special to us. She loves to snuggle with her mama and would just love to skip school and stay home with me all day. She loves her brothers and sisters and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of a new sister from Eastern Europe. I will post pics of our special Gracie now so you can see how she has grown.

Due for a Post

May 11, 2009

It has been over 2 years since we have posted. Much has happened in that time. We have brought home another china blessing this year. We returned home on April 24th with our sweet Gideon. Gracie is a great jie jie. Gracie has grown but is still very small for her age. She was 22 pounds upon arrival home and is now 27 lbs. She is 5 1/2 years old and is in kindergarten. She is a very loving, silly little girl. She is so very happy. Gracie loves to dance. She loves the colors blue, yellow and brown. Her favorite food is spicy noodles and spicy hot chicken wings--she is a spicy girl from the Hunan province after all. She has been a complete joy to us. She loves her big sisters Hannah and Danielle and loves her brothers Caleb, Jordan and Christopher. She is now a big sister to little Gideon. We have been so very blessed. To hear the story of our newest china blessing go to http://www.anotherchinablessing.blogspot.com/.

Sept 19,2007

Nearly 2 months
It is nearly 2 months now that we are home and so much has happened. Gracie is a pure joy. She is the happiest, silliest little girl. She laughs and plays and just makes us so happy. She is picking up English so well. It is amazing. She sings her ABC's, Twinkle Twinkle, Itsy Bitsy Spider and counts to 5 as well as many phrases. She sometimes mixes her English and Chinese-Chinglish. She keeps me quite busy but that's ok. She loves her brothers and sisters and has them all wrapped around her little finger. Her favorite seems to be Ge Ge Jordan.
Health wise she is healthy, though the Doctors have decided that she may have had Spina Bifida. She has what appears to be a small incision at the base of her spine. The orphanage denies her having any surgery while in their care. She is getting physical therapy and will soon be fitted for braces for her legs. They will decide more after 3 months of therapy. She will need further surgery on her hands down the road as well. Other than that all is good.
She will start preschool in another week. I'm not sure if she is really ready but we will see. I am back to working part time and she has been home with either Daddy or big sister Danielle.
She is a real mama's girl and wants me most of the time that I am home. But she really loves her Baba and lights up when he comes in. Baba will be starting a new job that will take him out of town and I know that will be hard to get used to but we will have to get through that. We know that the Lord has great plans for our bunch and we can't wait to see what is next. He has been so faithful to us. We are so blessed to have each other and to know our Lord. We can get through anything as long as we take the Lord along with us. I feel the Lord leading me somewhere but I'm not sure where. A new job, mission work, or somewhere else, I'm not sure. I know he will reveal it to me soon. For now I will continue where I am, content with my job and family the way it is. If he leads me somewhere else I will go.

July 25,2007 Last Day

July 25,2007

Our last day in Guangzhou as I stated was a good one. I'm posting pictures from that day with this last post. We rose at 4:00am to get ready to leave. We left for the airport at 5:30. Gracie wanted no part of getting up that early but we finally got her going. It was rush rush as we all went to get our tickets and go through security. There were 4 families total leaving this am. It was us, the Dufresnes, the Petrocelli's and Devon and her kids. We boarded without difficulty and we were off for Tokyo. The flight was 4 hours long. The kids did great. Hannah watched the movie and Gracie played for a while and slept. In Tokyo we had to rush through security again and we all grabbed McDonalds and quickly ate before boarding. We were only able to get 3 seats together but were able to get a girl to trade so Tim was then sitting with us. There were a group of Japanese students traveling to the US and 2 of them were next to Tim. They were about 11 years old. Very sweet. The one next to him rested her head on his shoulder and later flopped her leg over his while she was sleeping. We were cracking up. Once again Hannah and Gracie did great. They slept the last 4 hours of the 11 hour flight. The food was not so good but all in all we survived. We realized after we had boarded that we had not seen Devon and her girls get on so we assume she had missed the flight. We're not sure what happened to them. We feel terrible about this. The Dufresnes with baby katie and the Petrocelli's with Kiara and us were so happy to be back home to the US. Hannah was ecstatic, She hugged her daddy and exclaimed "we're home!" We deplaned and made our way through the airport to the area our families would be waiting. It was great to see all of you there. Mom, Danielle, Drew, Doreen and the kids, our Caleb and then to see Shari that was quite a surprise. Gracie was very shy and quiet for the arrival. Once home she opened up more and had fun. What a wonderful surprise to see what Doreen and Scott and done with the kids room. A complete makeover. I'll take pictures and post later. We are so happy to be home and thank the Lord for our safe and uneventful travel and such wonderful kids. We again know that we are so blessed and loved. We are definately the lucky ones to have been able to bring home another beautiful little one from China.

July 24 Consulate appt
Well today is our last day here. We are so ready to come home yet sad to leave the place of our children's birth. We love this country very much. We thank the mother of our daughter for choosing to give her daughter a life where she would be taken care of as she couldnt. We pray that she is doing well and has a peace in knowing her daughter is loved and cared for very much.
Today we did the redcouch photos. This was a lot of fun. Most of the kids cooperated very well. We had a free morning to shop and play in the Swan room. Then at 2:30 we left for the Consulate. It brought tears to my eyes as we said our oath and knew that our children would now be US Citizens. We came back to the hotel and ate one last time at Lucy's and finished our shopping. We said our goodbyes to the local shop owners. We especially will miss Lucy and Belinda. We took a final swim in the pool and then it was rush to pack and get things ready for our early morning departure. The kids are asleep but Hannah has been running a fever today. We pray she will feel better in the morning for our long day of travel. This is our final post from China. I can't post pictures because I can't find the cord to connect the camera to the computer. I will post pictures from our last day once we are home. Thank you Lord for a fabulous time and safe travel and especially for our precious little angel, Gracie Yuhong Hope Egan.