Weekends are fun time with Daddy!

Grace shows more of her personality everyday. She is so adorable and so much fun. Weekends are "Daddy fun time!" I play with her and spend as much time as possible. I think she has as much fun as I do...maybe more!

She loves to smile and will do it on command if we say "show us your teeth." The photos below are the result :)

Adoption...Final!

Today we finalized the adoption of our amazing Grace!

She has always been ours in God's eyes but now it is official in the eyes of the United States government.
We went to the Family court in Monterey Park for a 10:15 am court appearance and had to wait until almost 11. There some other families ahead of us and the judge did not start on time. This was OK because Grace had time to run and play in the large waiting area with many other families and parents. She even got to color a butterfly and play with feathers that were there as activities for the children. They really try to make it pleasant for the kids as we all wait.

Unfortunately, not all the families were there for happy reasons like completing adoptions. There were some dealing with divorce issues regarding their children and visitation. Sad to see that on such a happy occasion for our family. It just helps us recognize how blessed we are as a family...and how blessed I am to have such a fantastic wife and wonderful daughter!

We went into the court room which we were told would be informal. The judge and everyone were very nice. Grace was a bit scard and clung to either Phuong or I. She really did not understand what was going on and who all these strange people were. You can see it in her face in the photo below :)
The judge seemed to be very interested in Phuong's ethnicity and tried speaking Chinese. The only thing is that Phuong does not speak Chinese :)


We were able to film the proceedings and take some photos. Overall it was a great experience and nice to complete a process that has taken over 4 years and almost a year to the day that Grace was put into our arms for the first time!

Grace with best friend Evan!

Recently, Phuong met a very nice family that live close by. They have a little boy, Evan, that is a month older then Grace. All of them get together often so Grace has a play buddy. Everyone gets along so well and have a great time.

Evan is a very sweet little boy, has a lot of fun and listens so well. Grace has a lot of fun too. She too is very sweet, like to share and...well, I will let the pictures speak for themselves :)




Here is Evan and Grace at Costco...That's our girl! :)









OK...apparently Grace insisted on "walking" the dog.



Grace and Evan having fun!

Some new photos :)

Grace was watching The Lion King right before it was time to take her nap...guess she could not make it to the end :)



...and of course we had to take many pictures...



...plus a close-up.



Here's Grace and her blanket that she cannot go to sleep without.

"Stork Day' anniversary

Today is the anniversary of "Stork Day," as Phuong calls it.
Well, actually, it is tomorrow March 4Th but I am updating the blog now as I do not know if I will get to it tomorrow.

Sitting here typing this I can reflect on the night before we got the call from the adoption agency. We knew at this time last year that the call would be coming the next morning around 9 am. It was very difficult to sleep or concentrate on anything else! We did not know anything about our beautiful daughter Grace. We did know that God had chosen her for us to be her family.

I remember thinking of all the videos I watched online of other families getting "the call" and the emotions. All this added to our emotions and excitement for the next day.

The call came almost promptly at 9am. I had prepare the web cam to tape the whole call, our reactions and any information that came during the call in case our emotions got the better of us and we missed something :)

We were so over joyed to hear about Grace for the first time. It was such a surreal moment. After waiting for 3 years for our daughter, that day finally arrived.

We were told only the following facts about Grace:
- Chinese Name: Guo, Jiang Yu
- Born 6/17/07
- Beiliu, Guangxi
- Height: 24" tall (as taken in Oct)
- Nov. 18 medical exam
- Travel group: 1332...we are expected to travel in 4 to 6 weeks

She's a moderate sleeper.
Eats milk with rice cereal
Quiet and ready to smile :)
Likes music



Today, Grace is:
- Grace Yu Wolkiewicz
- Living in southern CA - USA
- takes regular naps (one a day)and sleeps through the night :)
- eats just about anything, but likes chicken nuggets, milk, noodles and fish crackers!
- smiles and laughs often
- still loves music and dances to almost anything



Grace is a real blessing to our family.
It still feels surreal today when I look at her and realize that we really do in fact have a daughter.

WE LOVE YOU GRACE!

Chinese New Year

Today we went to a Chinese new year dinner with friends from our local adoption group. The owners of the restaurant were kind enough to close their doors for us for a few hours and the entire event was so nicely put together by some people in the group. They had lion dance cotumes and bubble wrap for the kids to stomp on (instead of firecrakers).
The food was good but it was really nice to see everyone.
All the kids are growing so fast and it was fun to see them all interacting and playing.

Here are a few photos and a video of the event.



Grace taking Mommy for a walk.



Grace stomping the (fire cracker) bubble wrap with Mommy and the other kids.



Grace on bubble wrap!

Gymboree Birthday Party

On 2/01, we went to a birthday party at Gymboree in Pasadena. Grace had another great time running and playing on everything!