Our little sponge!!

 

"I will tell of the kindnesses of the Lord..." Isaiah 63:7

No doubt you will be wondering at the oddity of our blog title today but it is the best way to describe how our beautiful daughter is transitioning into her new family life. She is literally 'soaking up' all around her and processing all the new information and experiences. Our photographs today will give you a laugh and warm your heart at how she is opening up her heart to us.

The morning however started early....in fact we did not get too much sleep since Gabriella is teething and with it came high temperatures and irritability. However thank goodness for Calpol (and Nana Haddock who provided excellent on call nursing advice :)). We managed to get the temperature down overnight and today. However despite her affliction of sore lower gums Gabriella has continued to enjoy her favourite pastime - eating!!

Our guide came to our hotel this afternoon with the corrected copies of our documentation - my name has now been spelt correctly - yipee!! We also got Gabriella's Chinese passport to faciliate our homeward journey out of the country. The finalised documentation provided clear evidence that we are legally her adoptive parents and seeing this fact in written format made us both shed a tear.....so many years waiting it is hard to believe that this moment has come. God is good and faithful.

After a wee nap we all then headed to the play room for some block building and demolishing!! Gabriella is learning the skills of play quickly but continues to only play within the sphere of her arms length, although she is now getting up into standing and then, as shyness takes over she sits back down again. Time and nuture will change this.

For dinner we headed to Lucy's diner, a big recommendation from all China intercountry adopters who come to Guangzhou. It is really an American diner and I just loved my hamburger and french fries....my mouth was watering just passing the front door. Gabriella enjoyed Chicken congee and she sat like a queen in her high chair for the first time without too much fuss and tears. I notice that Gabriella watches everything you do and we laughed when I forgot to wipe her mouth after a spoonful of congee only to note that she lifted her bib and done it herself, all very precise and ladylike! We also could not let the moment pass without giving her a taste of western food.The picture says it all!!

On return to the hotel, preparations were put in place for Gabriella's bedtime routine...but she had other ideas!! It was a case of 'role reversal' and before we knew it she had given Stephen his bottle of milk and read a bedtime story before a last minute joke and kiss goodnight. My, what a difference 4 days makes. It is very evident that God's plans are so perfect and we feel blessed that he chose this wonderful little girl for us.

More tomorrow....away to catch up on some sleep. Just in case you are wondering at our time keeping, I need to let you know that we are not able to blog from China. The firewall will not allow us to send anything to our blog site. So we have to send our friend Dawn an email version of the blog update and she very kindly posts it for us - so we are not actually up blogging at 4am. Thank you Dawn so much xx

Caroline, Stephen & Gabriella xxx

 

Caroline & Gabriella playing with ring tower - Gabriella knows how to throw "watch out mummy!"

 

Yummy marble cake at Starbucks

 

This might look like play but its serious business
 

 

Must give daddy his bottle....

 

....and then read him his bedtime story

 

....before sharing a funny story so that he goes to bed with a smile!