1st Birthday Party

Well, Mercy had a great 1st birthday party with her cousins and a little friend Sophie. She played in her little pool with Daddy and her cousins and Sophie that Nana bought her. She loved being in it. Daddy however was a little big for it!!!!

We had a great barbecue and then cake after. She seemed to love her cake. When we presented it to her to blow her candles out, she ran her hands across the decorated part for a taste. She had a big taste of icing from Uncle Jamie who tried to get her all "sugared" up. She seemed to like it and got it all over!!!

Thank you to everyone for her lovely gifts. We are going to have to make sure we create a playroom in the basement for all her "stuff". It was a great day!!!!

Birthday Girl

Well today our little girl was 1 year old. We had a nice quiet day with just Daddy and Mommy and celebrated with some gifts. Mercy really liked the new toy mommy and daddy got her and she took to it right away. She will be walking in no time.

We have had some nice visits with Auntie Laurie, Uncle Jamie and Sophie and long walks with them. I think Mercy likes to watch Sophie!! Mercy is getting more teeth in the top now and getting quite a bite to it. She is even learning to feed herself with her own hands!!! Mercy is a clever little girl. She has been to church twice now and both times has enjoyed the music and seems to fall asleep at the sermon time!! Go figure, she is starting a bit early with falling asleep in church!!! Mercy loves to be mobile and look around her when she is in the stroller and usually falls asleep in the van on car rides!!! Too bad she didn't fall asleep as fast at night time!!!

We are throughly enjoying our daughter and she is gradually getting to meet some new friends. She just charms everyone with her smile!!!

I will try and post more update in the coming weeks, as I have been a bit slack lately. I have some birthday pics to post as well. Thanks for everyone's good wishes and welcome homes. It is great to have Mercy home and enjoying family life in Canada. We can't imagine life without her now.

Stay tuned!!!

Home At Last!

Well we are finally home and settling into life in Canada with our little Mercy. She is truly an adorable little girl and we love her to pieces. It was a good flight home from Beijing and Mercy did very well sleeping 5 hours of the 12. She is becoming quite the little traveler. We were greeted at the airport by my brother and his wife and a surprise welcome from Roger's Aunt Norma and Uncle Barry. They were all very elated to finally meet Mercy. It was good to be home!! Nana Toman got to meet Mercy when we got back to our home and Mercy had some nice little smiles for her!!

We're slowly going through the paperwork we need to file for her - temp. health card etc. and today we have our first doctor's appointment. Mercy has picked up a bit of a cold so I am hoping we can get something to clear it up fast. Mom and Dad are doing well - over jetlag now, but still battling with loss of sleep at night when Mercy is up. I think she gets more sleep then we do at this point!

As you can see from the pics, Mercy is a happy little girl and is lots of fun. She has even met her new cousins Liam and Katie and also her new friend Sophie who wanted to play. So many people to meet so little time!!!

Great Wall

We made the big trip to the Great Wall on Sunday and it was a long steep climb to only the first level that we made. Roger and Mercy were troopers and Roger had Mercy on the front and the knapsack on his back.
Quite a few of the members of our group made up to the first level. There were about 3000 other people making the trek too it seemed. It was a great day temperature wise and we were glad to not have too much heat so we could all make the climb. It was an amazing sight as you can see.

Tomorrow we go to the Summer Palace and the silk road to do more shopping. We went to the Pearl Factory and the Jade Factory after the Great Wall and it was quite a shopping day.


We head to Tianamen Sq. on Wed. - another historic and symbolic site. We are enjoying seeing all the sights and sounds of China on our last few days here. Mercy
is doing well and has even slept through the night. She had her first baby food today and enjoyed it thoroughly.

We'll be home real soon and look forward to seeing everyone and Mercy meeting you all.

Gotcha Mercy!!

Well the moment finally came for Gotcha Day. We took a two hour drive from Chongqing to Fuling and arrived at the Fuling Social Welfare Institute with the staff awaiting our arrival.

Within 5 minutes of our arrival they started to bring the babies in to present to us. We were thrilled to finally meet our little daughter Mercy. As you can see she was studying us to see who we were. She was a very contented little girl and we were thrilled to see her play with the little rattle we gave her. Mercy seemed to be fine with both of us and did not cry at all. She even gave us a few smiles. We had a great tour of the orphanage and were able to visit where the children play and sleep. The staff at Fuling SWI were very caring and loving people as we could sense. We had a good first night and Mercy pretty well slept through the night. What a blessings. We are off to the Civic Affairs office today to finalize paperwork and then off to shop at Walmart. Mercy was a little bigger than we thought.

I will be posting some more pics real soon. Thanks to our friends Gord and Shannon who let us use their computer. Enjoy the photos!!

Safely in Beijing!

We are finally here in Beijing. We had a great trip. Flight was delayed a few hours but it was all good. Our wonderful guide Sara met us at the airport. We have already been on a couple tours to the Lama Temple and seen a show with the Acrobats. We are experiencing the many sites and sounds of Beijing which tickle your senses. There are many bicycles in the streets and they are very crowded. The whole travel group will be with us by tomorrow and we will be meeting our daughter Mercy on Sunday when we fly to Chongqing.

We have eaten some good meals at various restaurants - all good. We are taking another tour of a temple tomorrow. The pics will say it all.

Almost There!!!

Well we are almost there. Just about time to leave soon. We've been busy packing and getting things organized. Still have to childproof our home a bit!!!

I've been sharing with people about our journey we will be on to get our lovely daughter and it is amazing how many people know someone who has actually adopted either from China or from somewhere else in the world. It is so common now!!! Most people are excited for us and happy for us to receive our little daughter from across the world.
We just can't wait to hug her and daddy just wants to kiss her face off!!!!
She is so precious to us already and we just want to bring her home to be safe with us and enjoy all the things we have for her. I can't wait for all her "firsts". Her first step, her first bath, her first pair of fancy shoes, her first taste of winter and snow. All the things she has yet to experience that she doesn't know about yet. Her life as she knows it is about to change!!! We will truly love and bless her and let her enjoy all that life has for her!!!

I keep thinking of the "gotcha" moment and I wonder if she will smile, study us or just look at us funny. We'll try not to scare you little one!! Time goes on and we wait just a short while longer!!!!