Lily Grace (Sing)

Lily Grace Xing Green.

When we adopted Lily Grace, we decided to keep her given name as a part of her English name. Thus, poor Lily will have to deal with having four names all through school. We thought that would be the best way to continue to remind us of her heritage and to provide a nugget for her curiosity as she grows up. We won't yell Lily Grace Xing when she gets in trouble though, because Xing is pronounced Sing! Wouldn't that be confusing!









Gimme some sugar Mommy!

This week has been another week of firsts. Lily Grace had her first peanut butter and jelly sandwich. She had her first visit to Mommy's workplace. She had her first American pizza. She had her first play in the sprinkler system (not too good at the beginning, but loving it by the time we quit). She had her first official tea party (with Austin and Kaitlyn) and made her first official movie - Kaitlyn brought over her video camera so that she and Austin could document Lily's day. Don't know what the got, they're being very secretive about it, but there's lots of laughter.



"Where are the brakes on this contraption?"











But the biggest first of all, was going to the doctor! Lily Grace, Connie and I ventured to the International Adoption Clinic at UAB in Birmingham. Everything went well, after Lily got used to the idea of being poked and prodded. Funny thing is that the worst part of the visit was measuring and weighing her. We didn't even pay attention to what the metrics said about our little miracle. But later we were told she's very tall and very thin. So we'll work on putting some meat on her bones. Now, about that pizza!

This morning, we gave our church a porcelan vase we bought in Jiangxi as a gift of thanks for all they have done since we got back. We were kept in plenty of food the first week - it kinda spoiled us, but that was ok. Later, I think I will ask the pastor if I can speak one Sunday night about our trip. That way, I can encourage our brothers and sisters in Christ to pray for orphans everywhere, that they too might find a home and a place to learn about Jesus.

We have had much contact with the couple adopting Lily's best friend in the orphanage. The little girl's name will be Hannah and she will live in Illinois. We were able to send them pictures and I plan to send them a video as soon as I can get it made. They are very excited about their adoption and we just tried to encourage them all we can and offered to answer any questions they might have.





Austin and Kaitlyn serve up a "Chinese" breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon, and fruit cocktail!










Love,
Jerry, Connie, Austin, and Lily Grace
Green, Party of Four