It’s Thursday morning, Olivia is still sleeping soundly, and I wanted to say thank you. Thank you for all of your prayers, for your amazing words of wisdom and comfort and for being with us every step of the way. The past couple of days I’ve been so tired and there have been moments I’ve wondered if I could really do this. And then I’ve felt your prayers….and I look at this little girl who is now my little girl and I am in awe of her!



Olivia is amazing!! She has so many smiles, she laughs easily, she’s curious and adventurous, and SHE is teaching me so many things! She’s so patient with me as I change her clothes. She smiles and claps when she eats. She loves to be held by her mama and reaches out to me to be picked up. She talks (a one word vocabulary so far!) and sings and we’ve even seen her do a little dance.



Wednesday was her first bath. I was a little apprehensive, not knowing how she would like the water, but what was I thinking? She loved it! She splashed and splashed and when the water got in her eyes she just wiped them and kept splashing! She also had her first shopping experience yesterday. On the way back to the hotel we asked our guide what people thought of seeing Americans with a Chinese baby. Our guide said, “The clerks in the store thought she was cute, they thought she was American!”

We received her passport at the end of the day yesterday so our work in this town is done. Today we have a free day (which we are all very much looking forward to) and then tomorrow we fly early in the morning to Guangzhou. We’re all very much looking forward to reuniting with the other families in our group there. We’ve missed them!

Thank you again….knowing you are all praying and loving us from afar has meant so much to me. Oh there I go again, crying. I’ve done a lot of that the past couple of days. It’s those dang hormones….:)

I love you!
Karis