Happy Birthday to Georgea! Happy day for Mommy & Daddy!

We had an amazing day two with our birthday girl today. What a blessing to spend Georgea's first birthday with her in China, in her home province, Guangxi. This was a dream that we had as soon as we received her referral at the end of February, and today it came true.

Georgea fell asleep beside Mommy & Daddy last night & we moved her to her crib around midnight, after she'd been snoozing for almost an hour. She had a wonderful night's sleep in her crib and we woke her at about 8am for breakfast. We enjoyed a low key day, mostly staying in the hotel to help her settle in and begin the bonding process. She is doing so well. After breakfast we just hung out for a few hours in the hotel. We played and snuggled, and Georgea took a nice nap. We then ventured out for a short walk around the area close to our hotel which includes a beautiful park. We had dinner at our hotel and Daddy secretly ordered a birthday cake to be brought to the table after dinner! Three of the servers brought the cake w a candle & we all sang happy birthday to Georgea! How sweet.

We love China and are so enjoying being in Georgea's province. It is beautiful here. Warm & very tropical (read: humid!). My hair is having a curl-a-thon & I'm just not even going to fight it....too busy doting on my baby to worry about weird hair that brings back memories of my years living in Florida.

Georgea is bonding well with both of us and we are so thankful. Not sure what the days to come will bring, but we are very happy about how she is doing now and hoping and praying things will continue to go well. Georgea is so beautiful and healthy. She weighs just about 20lbs, is eating, drinking, playing, engaging, giggling (she has the sweetest raspy-sounding giggle ever!). She does well even when sitting alone on her blanket, just playing with her toys and books. Her skin is clear, soft, brown & just so beautiful. Her legs are long & perfect. She has some serious thighs! I just want to kiss and kiss those thighs! I am truly amazed at how healthy she seems to be. I believe she received wonderful care at her Social Welfare Institute, and in her foster home. It is obvious. What a blessing.

Her SWI sent 2 very sweet gifts to us. One is a DVD with many photos of Georgea starting at what appears to be when she was approximately 6 mos. of age. The other is a tiny silver bracelet that has Yulin Social Welfare Institute written on it, in Chinese. What wonderful keepsakes. These will be treasures for all of us.

The photos here are a few from the evening of our first day together, yesterday 5/25. Georgea napping on Daddy's lap & heading to dinner in the Baby Bjorn with Mommy. The rest of the photos are from 5/26, of the birthday girl! There are some sights from Nanning, the city we are staying in as well as our time strolling in the park.

Thanks to all for your wonderful comments on the blog. My friend Sue is forwarding them to me via email so I can enjoy. Your encouragement, interest in and support of our experience here in China with Georgea are so very meaningful!