Happy to be at home

We got home late Friday night. Baby Allison was very good and slept through most of the flights. She woke up on Saturday with crazy hair and had fun playing with her new toy.

We introduced our dog Jia-Jia to baby Allison on Saturday. She enjoyed Jia-Jia's company very much. It was very nice to be home. We missed Jia-Jia greatly.

Hooray! We are going home

We are very happy that we are finally able to bring baby Allison home after 15 months of waiting and countless paperwork. We had tears in our eyes when the U.S. Consulate congratulated us on the adoption and announced baby Allison had successfully complete her immigration process. She is definitely worth the wait and all the hard work. She is the best gift from God. We look forward to starting our new life with her in the States.

Baby Allison got her immigrant visa to the U.S.

Baby Allison's immigration process went well. We went to the U.S. Consulate, took oath (there were a total of 54 adoptive families took oaths at the same time), and received her immigration visa this afternoon. Baby Allison would become an U.S. citizen upon entry to the U.S.

Our group will part ways and leave for the U.S. tomorrow. We were very happy that we finally got through all the paperwork and were able to get Allison home but sad to say goodbye to all the wonderful families we met during the trip. All of them has demonstrated tremendous love and patience for the kids. Here is our group picture.



We had a farewell dinner this evening. Baby Allison dressed up as a China doll. You can tell she is having a great time.




Here is a good picture of baby Allison and her pal, baby Kelly.


Baby Allison posed with baby Kelly and her sister Avery.




Baby Allison and baby Kelly went crumbling down after the nice shot. They were so funny.

This has been an amazing trip. We saw many families came here to adopt kids with special needs. We were happy to see over 100 hundred kids were adopted in the past week. We hope one day all children will have homes and parents who love them.

Immigration paperwork submitted

Baby's Allison's immigration paperwork was submitted to U.S. Consulate today. If all goes well, baby Allison will take the oath tomorrow and obtain her U.S. immigration visa.

We stayed at the hotel today just in case U.S. Consulate needs further information. We took advantage of the down time and taught baby Allison how to roll over. She could roll forward now .

We also taught her how to self-feed. She is proudly showing off her teething biscuit and a BDO Baby bip (Thanks, aunts and uncles at BDO, for the beatiful bips and other gifts. Baby Allison loves all of them).

A day in Guangzhou

Our group spent the day touring Guangzhou. The five-goat statue behind us is how Guangzhou gets its name as "Yank Sing" (Goat Town)

It was warm in Guangzhou. Baby Allison looked nice and cool in a hat we bought her at the shopping mall where she was found.

After a long day, she was sitting nice and tight for the dinner. She is a super good baby. She loves to eat, sleeps well, and has good temperament. We feel very fortunate to have her as our daughter.

US Immigration Step 1 - Medical Checkup

Baby Allison did her medical check-up today for the U.S. Immigration application. She weighed 7.3 kg (16 pounds), which was 2 pounds less than when she was 6 months old. The weight difference may be caused by the clothes she had on back then, which probably weighed more than 2 pounds.

Here is a picture of kids in our group. They are all angels adopted from China.

Here is a picture of baby Allison showing off her toys.

Mother's Day

Today is Grace's first Mother Day for being a mom. We celebrated the day at a local Starbucks where Grace got a free drink and a carnation.





Parenthood has been an amazing journey. When we first got baby Allison, she barely could sit. She was also afraid of water as she had never been bathed (according to the people from local adoption agency, kids at orphanages and foster care are normally cleaned by sponge). After teaching her how to sit and introducing her to water, we were thrilled to see her sitting and enjoying the bath.


We also taught her how to hold on things. We were very happy to see her holding the teether.

Seeing her growing and making progress each day has been rewarding and joyful . Her every move brightens up our days and opens our eyes to a whole new world. We have to say thank you, baby Allison, for being our daughter and making this Mother's Day extra special.

Baby's first plane ride

Baby Allison did very well with her first flight to Guangzhou. She slept through most of the flight and did not cry at all. We were very thankful that she was such good baby.





Before getting on the flight to Guangzhou, our group went to Wuhan's famous local alley for breakfast (from the left, Bruce, Susanna, Maggie, Avery, Rebecca, Allison, Micheal, and Sarah). The food was very good except all of us get scolded for not giving enough clothes for the kids to wear. Kids in China normally wear long sleeve shirts and long pants even in hot summer days. Kids in our group were the only ones with shorts and skirts.

Here is a picture of baby Allison with Kelly, Maggie and Bruce's little girl. They both are very good babies.

Baby's passport

We received Baby Allison's adoption certificate and her Chinese passport this morning.

Our group later toured the Quei-Yuan temple which was built in 16 century and survived the Chinese Culture Revolution. Here is a picture with Maggie and her daughter, Kelly Lin Berman. Baby Allison and Kelly are both adopted from Huang-Gong orphanage. Their birthdays were only 10 days apart.

Here is a picture of baby Allison and Maggie's older daughter, Avery. Don't they look lovely? Baby Allison's mosquito bites are a lot better now.


On the way back from the temple, baby Allison took a nap. She looked so peaceful.

We will fly back to Guangzhou tomorrow to start her U.S. immigration process. We are happy that we are one step closer to bring her home.

Visit to the Orphanage

We visited baby Allison's orphanage, which was about 40 miles southeast of Wuhan. We also visited the place where baby Allison was found.

Here is a picture of the orphanage.



Baby Allison was found near an entry way of a local shopping center next to an air conditioner on August 22, 2006, 50 days after she was born. Here is a picture of the shopping mall.

Here is the place she was found.

If one day baby Allison asked us where she was from, we would be proud to tell her that she came from a beautiful place and she was born from our love and our hearts.

Baby's first McDonald

Baby Allison was too young to have a Big Mac but she sure enjoyed looking at the McDonald sign, especially when it was in Chinese. :-)

Adoption is finalized today

We signed Chinese adoption paperwork this morning. Baby Allison is now formally our daughter. You can tell Michael is very happy.

First Day with Baby Allison

We finally received baby Allison from Director of Huang Gong Social Welfare Institute at 10:30 am on Tuesday (5/8/2007). Baby Allison was coughing and had over a dozen mosquito bites on her cheeks. Nevertheless, she was a very good baby. She did not cry throughout the entire receiving process. She adored Grace. There was an instant bond between them. She also warmed up to Michael later on the day and was taking a nap on Michael’s lap. We are thankful for this little god-send angel who have already changed our life in every positive ways.

First Day in China

After 22 hours of travel, we arrived in Guangzhou, China yesterday to start the last stretch of our 15-month journey to baby Allison. There are a total of 6 adoptive families (20 people) in our group, which is the smallest group in 10 years (the normal group size ranged from 20 to 40 families. The decrease in size is mainly due to less adoptive children are available as China become more prosperous.)

Three of the families are here to adopt special-need children and two of the families are adopting their second child from China. We are deeply moved by their love, kindness, and care. We are happy to meet them and look forward to spending the rest of 2-week magical journey with them.

Baby Allison will be in our hand on Tuesday morning in Wuhan. We are exited to learn that one of the adoptive babies comes from the same orphanage as baby Allison and their birthday are only 10 days apart.

By the way, it is now 3:30 am on Monday in China and we are totally awake, not sure if it is because of the jet-lag or the excitement of meeting baby Allison. We will catch a flight to Wuhan in 5 and 1/2 hours. We will update you soon.