Thank you for your prayers and gifts!

We are so blessed! We have received many prayers and gifts for our sweet Anna Lin to welcome her into our family, to welcome her to The States, and to help her have a new beginning with us. On Tuesday, Ric's work gave a shower for Anna Lin. She did really well. She was very nervous at first as she walked into a building she had never been to before. I did tell her it was where Daddy worked. We picked up Daddy then walked down a hallway into another room with a lot of people in it, decorated in teddy bears and balloons. Once we sat down and began opening presents, she warmed up. The first few presents we opened, then after say number four AL took over and put her heart into it. :-) We have been so blessed by the generosity of the people at Ric's workplace, having received presents before we left for China, then continuing up until and after the shower. We are so grateful to be a part of this family of people.

AL loves all of the gifts received. She loves the LeapPad early learning systems, having great fun with learning the alphabet and her numbers. (She especially loves to count!) The clothes were perfect. Anna Lin thoroughly enjoyed unpacking, untagging, and putting the clothes in her closet. She takes one of the white bears from the shower for a walk daily in the little purple stroller. The rest of the bears sit in her room waiting for their turn at play. We were thankful for the receipts given, which helped us take the duplicate items back. (Several stores will not allow you to return an item now without a receipt (Ex: ToysRUs).) Target gave us a gift card for the duplicate presents returned, which we then added to ALL of the other Target gift cards we received. (Again, we are SOOOO blessed by your generosity!) Then AL and I went shopping (again!), mainly buying clothes for the fall and winter, plus a 'few' shoes. (Ric seems to think we have reached AL's shoe quota now!) We used money received to buy music CD's and Winnie the Pooh "Word Adventure" DVD's to name a few things. (They have some really nice ones on opposites and shapes, etc.) Anna Lin loves Winnie the Pooh and is especially fond of Tigger. Ric has been teaching her to say "TTFN, ta ta for now" along with some Tigger sound effects. By the way, the boys loved the left over food and I loved not cooking that night! :-) Thanks so much!

We have also received many presents and well wishing from friends, family and neighbors. The wonderful people from my work place (school and district) gave us a shower back before school let out in May. Again, we are truly blessed to have such wonderful and generous family and friends (which includes co-workers!). A couple of weeks ago we opened and put together a huge doll house given to us from some of the great people I work with. I was then able to use some gift cards for 'house accessories' that AL was just thrilled with, along with filling it with dolls given to AL by a friend. We use many of the toys, books, coloring sets with The Princess daily. The generosity of the my co-workers also helped us get Anna Lin's room all decorated before we left for China.

Thank you to one and all for your generosity and prayers to our family and new daughter. We are blessed to have your help.

-Angi