Gettin' use to the new faces of Mama and Papa...

Good morning everyone,

Thanks for all of the support, prayers, and comments, we love hearing from you. It doesn't matter how little you have to say, we love it all!


Cece has been a little polar today (not too surprising), at times she is very reserved and quiet, and at times she is a rolly-polly bundle of googling, cooing baby girl. I think that she knows we are OK, but she is still wondering when the others are coming back to get her and take her home. She is very observant. If she wants something she grabs it right away. If she doesn't want something she reaches out and pushes it away as far as she can reach. So far the main things that she wants nothing to do with is anything in a baby bottle (except water). That means no formula, rice cereal, or milk. Oh well, we are restocked in potato chips, cheerios, bananas, and bottled water.

She continues to impress us in the short 24 hours that we have been with her. As her real personality continues to come out we see more and more the beauty that lies within her as well as on the outside.


I brought the wrong cable or I would download a few videos for you to enjoy. Perhaps I can find one here somewhere.


I've really enjoyed being here. The people are very kind and generous, as well as curious and inquisitive. Yesterday, Karen and I found ourselves in a tea house enjoying some really tasty tea. When the wonderful lady asked us if we wanted to buy something she told us that 100 grams of the tea cost about 2,800 yuan ($400 us dollars). I am guessing that we drank about $50 worth just trying to get over the language barrier. Well, after shopping at Walmart-China, you can imagine the sticker shock we were experiencing. Well, we began looking for the 10 pound box Chinese tea for 3 dollars. Needless to say, we never found that there, but we did find a small sack with about 25 pumpkin seeds that had been soaked in the expensive green tea. We are hoping to find someone who likes green tea pumpkin seeds to give it to very soon as we only got it to feel better about drinking all of there expensive tea. Come to think of it, we should have known something was up when they served us the tea in shot glass size cups.


Anyway, sorry for my rambling. I will close for now knowing that Jesus is so good and faithful to each of us. He is here with us at the same time that He is there with you, it makes me feel not so far from home thinking about that. I'll add a few pics from today below. Just so that you know, we finished the paperwork that makes her ours according to the country of China today! Yahoo!!!


Blessings everyone and thanks again for your love and support. We love you all.

Rich, Karen, and Cece


PS - A special love shout out to Abby and Jiji! We love and miss you very much. You are gonna love watching Cece play, she makes us laugh so much. She is so lucky to have such wonderful sisters. I am so lucky to have such wonderful daughters who I can't wait to hold and kiss. Special thanks to Uncle Rob and Aunty Ruth for loving and caring for them during these days. Our prayers are with you.

Sleeping in Mom and Dad's bed (at least she doesn't smack me in her sleep like Jiji)

Chillin' with Mom during one of our crazy car rides (Karen usually keeps her eyes closed during these trips)

The first of many smiles (check out all of those teeth)