We are in Urumqi

Trust in the Lord in all thy ways acknowledge him...." Proverbs 3:5

I am sorry that I am not able to blog as often as I would like to. Our laptop is not working at all so I am forced to use the computer at the hotel and we pay by the minute to use. Saturday in Beijing was wonderful. John, Mandy, and Shane went to the Great Wall and I spent the whole day except for nap time with Abigail. It was great! She is affectionate and was proud to have her "own mama". She would run up and greet me when I entered the foster home. One of the highlights of my day was her painting my nails. She did an amazing job for a 3 year old. The second highlight was watching her and Shane walk around together holding hands when they returned from the Great Wall tour. She went out to dinner with us and the folks from New Day and is was also great. We enjoyed our time there greatly. You all may want to check out the New Day web-site and go to the blog as there lots of pictures being taken of us. I have not checked it out due to not having a computer.

We left for Urumqi on Sunday morning. It was a long flight and was over 4 hours long. Abigail sat with Grace from New Day. Shane and I also sat in the same role. She is very playful. Did I mention that she is beautiful? I am sorry if that sounds proud but she is the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen! She was sad on the way to the hotel as she knew that Grace would be leaving us. She cried for about 5 minutes when I put her in the tub last night but once she started playing with the animals that blow up when you put them in the water (thanks Bonnie!), she was happy and played in the tub for a long time. She really likes Shane and they ended up both falling asleep in the bed with me last night. We have two hotel rooms and John has a room to himself as Shane refuses to leave Abigail or me. She slept all night and got up at 6:00 a.m. and let out a small cry and when I held her, she cuddled up and let me rock her for a while.

Today, Abigail officially became our child!! It was a long day as we left the hotel at 9:30 a.m. and did not return until almost 5:00 p.m. We did all the paperwork necessary to complete the adoption. Abigail "acted out" during the first part by crying and would not let John or me touch her. It broke our hearts as she had done so well thus far. When we went to the Civil Affairs office, her demeanor completely changed and she once again became our baby. She is starting to draw more toward me. Mandy has been a wonderful help and watched Shane all day while we were gone. It is way too active to take to the appointments with us. We will be in Urumqi until Saturday, March 28th. We are looking forward to spending some time in Guangzhou. Shane and Abigail are so very cute together and he loves her and it is obvious by the way he hovers around her all the time. I will blog again soon but it won't be as often as I would like to!