Gwendolyn Yu Sarah Liptak

Waiting in the hotel lobby for everyone so we can go to the Civil Affairs Office to finalize things! Here Gwen is playing with Alia, who is exactly her age. They recognize each other and are always happy to see each other! You can see that Gwen is dressed plenty warmly for a 45-50 degree day (Mom, the coat is perfect for her... thank you so much!), but not according to Chinese standards. We were scolded several times by the orphanage director and others for not dressing the girls warmly enough!





There is much left to do here in China. We spend another few days in Chengdu where we finalized the adoption yesterday. We understand that Gwen is legally ours now. Complete with an adoption certificate (which has a photo of the 3 of us), and a Chinese Passport (which has a picture of her from a few months ago... wearing red of course). We will be off for Guangzhou on Friday where we will perform medical examinations and time at the American Consulate. It is there that she will become an American citizen and get her Visa to travel back to the USA. In any event, she sure feels like ours now... and we absolutely cannot wait to get home to see Caleb, Seth and Madelyn, and everyone else.

Of the four children here, Gwen is by far the most active. She is a very VERY busy little girl. She mostly likes to exchange toys with people as she plays. She constantly walks back and forth giving you a toy, asking for one in return, and then walking to someone else to perform the same interaction. She is very happy, and seems to have come to grips with her nearly 2 year old "will power". Our local adoption guide here in Chengdu calls it "spicey"... we think that about captures it. I think she will fit in just fine with two older brothers and an older sister.

She has slept fairly well, however, since she is not feeling 100% she has woken a few times in the night and needed to be comforted for a short while. We have to tell you about her unique interaction with her bottle at night. It appears that she was most probably put to bed in her crib with her bottle. She first drains it... then sucks on it for about another 20-30 minutes while sound asleep. All you can hear is ths sucking of air, until she finally loses the grip on it and it lays down beside her. It sounds quite cute, and looks it too- however, It is kind of loud. Most definitely a source of comfort for her, just as a thumb of pacifier would be.