Finally, an Update!

Sally Welcomes the Greens to Nanchang

Hello everyone. I have finally wrestled the computer away from Austin and Connie is giving Lily Grace a bath. So now, I get to tell some stories. So here we go.

This photograph is of our guide here in Nanchang. Her name is Sally and she has been a tremendous blessing to us, making sure we make all of our appointments, get our paperwork in order, and have the proper gifts to exchange at the various appointments - it is customary in China to exchange gifts at appointments such as the ones we are required to keep. We were given an antique porcelean vase by the orphanage - Jiangxi is famous for porcelean. Sally has a wonderful personality and thinks the Greens are a hoot!

Sunday afternoon was one of the most awesome days we have ever experienced as a family. We got Lily Grace a day early. We already told you how much it seemed she was loved. Three men and a caregiver showed up for the ceremony. They had her dressed very cute and had just cut her hair and put little bows in it. They gave us some paperwork we hadn't seen before, including a copy of her abandonment advertisement (we were able to find an original today!). We also learned the name of the lady who found her and where she was found. It is very difficult to hold back tears as we go through this, especially to know and see the very location that our Lily Grace was abandoned. Tomorrow we will visit the site when we go to the orphanage. We'll be carrying along an extra box of Kleenex!

Monday morning we went back to the Adoption Center to finalize the adoption and receive Lily Grace's birth certificate. The main thing that the Adoption Center wanted to know was were we going to give Lily Grace a proper education. That's very important to the Chinese. So we promised that she would go to high school and the college of her choice. This made them very happy and they gave us her birth certificate. Our guide here in Jiangxi province took us shopping after that (she should have learned better from that episode, but the shopping would continue unabated what with three, no check that, four women in our group).

Tuesday, we spent the day at the Teng Wang Pavillion. I won't tell you much about that since Austin has already completed his journal on this topic. There was an awesome production of Asian music and dance (Amanda, if you're listening, I have some beautiful photos of the dancers!). But we did have lots of Chinese citizens approach us wanting to take pictures with us. The are amazed by Austin and particularly his eyes - they haven't seen anyone with green eyes before. Many want to touch Austin and Sally told us that they want to see if he is real!! Lily Grace was pretty much a Daddy's girl this day, hanging on to me all day (Yea!).

The Teng Wang Pavillion is over 1300 years old!



I Love Daddy!









Tuesday night, we went to an outdoor water and laser light show. The taxi ride there and back probably took 5 years off mine and Connie's life. There are pretty much no traffic laws and there are 4.8 million people. Hardly any traffic lights and more different types of transportation than you can imagine. They criss-cross each other like ants and move in and out of traffic at light speed and within inches of each other - think NASCAR on a city road course. Amazingly, we have seen no accidents either here in Nanchang or in Beijing. And oh, BTW if you are a pedestrian, you'd better watch traffic - they do not stop or even slow down for pedestrians! The laser light and water show was beautiful and everyone enjoyed it.

More later,
Love Jerry, Connie, Austin, and Lily Grace