Monday in Nanchang

Today we went to the Civil Affairs office and we are officially Ella Grace's parents!  What a blessing!  After a quick trip to the notary (not really sure what that was for, but it seemed official), we made a trip to Walmart to get a few snacks, water and a few things for Ella Grace.  She will not chew anything, so we are having to figure out foods that she can eat.  She will take soft foods and mash them with her tongue to the roof of her mouth, but she won't eat things that we would normally eat or things with much texture. Out of desparation, we bought some baby food, and she loved it!  So, we at least know we can get some veggies in her!  Her chewing is going to take time and therapy, but she will get it eventually!  She also has to be fed, and will NOT take anything from our hands.  It has to be from the spoon/fork, and most of the time it has to be quickly fed, or she lets us know that we aren't doing it fast enough!  ha!  Brad taught her the sign for "more" this morning at breakfast, and she caught onto the idea very quickly!  She was so funny at lunch, because she gets stubborn and sometimes doesn't want to sign more, but we kept encouraging her and by the end of the meal, she would just keep her hands in the sign of "more"!  She's got things figured out!  We have heard her call herself "Ella" today, and when one of us leaves the room, she says "Baba" (Daddy in Chinese) or Mama, looking to see where we went.  She spends alot of time snuggling with us and we just stare at each other.  The more we seem to do that, the more she seems to come out of her shell.  We bought her little cell phone at Walmart today, and she was so cute playing with it this afternoon, talking and laughing up a storm!  She's just so much fun to watch, and we find ourselves just sitting and taking it all in.  We have a down day tomorrow, NO appointments!  We are excited, as we are feeling like we are hitting a wall on our tiredness.  We were both awake at about 3:30 this morning, trying hard to fall back asleep.  By the time we adjust, it will be time to go home and start over! 

She's definitely itty bitty!  We brought some 4T clothes and they are just HUGE on her.  We also brought size 7 shoes, and she needs about a size 3.  I'm glad we decided to mostly pack Allyson's 3T's from last year. 

We got to skype with the kids this morning and introduce them to their new sister. It was absolutely wonderful to see all of their faces!  We miss them so very much and are counting down the days to HOME!!!

Here are  a few pictures from today!  

Official Family Photo taken at the Civil Affairs Office

 In her fancy new hat from her Auntie M

She loves to pull off her hat and laugh and laugh at her accomplishment!

We'll just go with the bow!

We have also seen her, today, pull up on furniture and cruise all around the room.  She is really close to standing up on her own from her sitting position on the floor.  She has amazing strength for such a soft body.  Her limbs are all really soft and VERY flexible.  We thought maybe she had NO muscle tone, but she has shown that she does have some strength  Her favorite thing to play is with the baby doll we brought her.  She undresses the baby and "washes" the baby.  She then covers the baby with the blanket.  She's very sweet to the baby, other than trying to rip it's hair out!  ha!

Also, one more story.  We met another family just down the hall last night, who received their son yesterday, who seems to be around 2 years old.  He and Ella were in the same home for a while, but he recognized her and came running to our table jabbering in Chinese, and the one word we could understand that he kept repeating was "Ella".... he recognized her.  We were so touched!  We are grateful that she was familiar with her name before we got her!  She also goes by "mao mao" (pronounced like cow), which means kitten. When she came to the Childrens Home, she was so tiny, that they started calling her their little kitten.  She answers to Mao Mao more than her name!  Pretty stinkin' cute!

Okay, back to bonding with our girl!  We thought she would take a nap this afternoon, but she's more interested in playing, so we'll just go with it!  I wish you all could see her with her Daddy.  She just really LOVES him!  Who can blame her, though, right?