Part 9--Welcome Home!

After a flight delay and being stuck on the runway with no air, the Wiggins finally made it home to a crowd eager to meet Sarah Grace.





With the flight delay, a gathering at the Wiggins' was postponed until Saturday. The excitement was too much for Sarah Grace and she fell asleep in the midst of it.

Part 8--Coming Home

Sarah Grace saw her first American flag today! We had our official appointment at the U.S. Consulate. All of the parents were very excited to see U.S. government employeesma and to be on U.S. soil. The actual ceremony consisted of them looking at our passport and asking us if everything on our documents was true. So there wasn't as much pomp and circumstance as we thought there might be. We thought maybe they would play the national anethm and wave little flags. Still, it was wonderful to be through with one more official step. (We don't have pictures of this event because there were no cameras allowed in the Consulate.) When we touch ground in Chicago, Sarah Grace will be a U.S. citizen!

We leave China with mixed emotions. We are excited to go home so we can stop living out of a suitcase, have familiar food available to us and introduce Sarh Grace to all the people who love her. It is a bit strange though to take her from her homeland and wonder when we will be able to bring her back to visit. We leave though with absolute certainty that God destined this little girl to grow up in our family as our daughter. We look forward to teaching her all about her homeland and all about how God brought her to the United States to be loved by us.

We leave the hotel tomorrow at 6 am. We'll travel about 24 hours and arrive in Indianapolis at 6 pm on Friday night (which will actually be Saturday morning in our minds). We can't wait to see all of you.

We are so grateful to our great God for all of the answers to prayer throughout this trip. We will sing his praises forever for giving us this sweet daughter. Thanks for all of your support. We'll see you in person soon!

Love - Andy, Angie and Sarah Grace

Part 7b--Pictures!

The first four are from Angie & Andy and the others are from the Bumatays (a BIG thanks to them for all the pictures!)

Part 7--Guangzhou

It is Tuesday morning here in Guangzhou, China and it's already about 90 degrees!

Sarah Grace had her official medical exam yesterday. Imagine small building crowded with dozens of adoptive families, plus dozens of Chinese patients as well. It was noisy and hot. Sarah Grace blissfully slept through our entire initial wait - about 1 hour. The minute the doctor began poking and prodding her, she woke up with a vengence though! There was much screaming! The exam was required but was really not with our effort. There were three different stations she had to visit. Each station took about 20 seconds but had about a 25 minute line. So she would get woken up for one station and then fall back asleep while we waited for the next. Total, we were in the office over 2 hours! She checked out fine. She weighs 19 lbs, has a head circumfrence of 17 inches and is 71 cm long. Many of the babies have been sick in this first week but Sarah Grace has not at all.

After the exam, our guides took us souvenir shopping for about 2 hours. She slept through all of that in her stroller as well. I think the heat just makes her want to sleep. All of the Chinese advice tells us that these babies like the heat becuase that's what they're accsumtomed to in the orphanage, that they like to be bundled up in lots of clothes and that they don't like the air conditioning. I don't know if that's true for other Chinese babies, but it isn't for Sarah Grace. She loves the AC and wants to take all of her clothes off the minute we get in the hotel room.

When we shopped, we bought her a new book to celebrate our one-week anniversary of being together.

Sunday, we visited a beautiful park across the street from our hotel, Yue Xiu Park. It's 92 acres of beautiful, lush trees and palnts. We plan to visit another park, Orchid Park, this afternoon. Sarah Grace loves leaves and flowers.

We took another swim last night. Sarah Grace would take off swimming if we would let her. She kicks and moves her arm and tries to put her face in the water. She laughs and laughs.

Her disposition is very sweet. She loves to giggle, smile and babble. She is gaining all kinds of muscle strengths and wants to be moving constantly (I guess that's why she takes such good naps).

We will be in China for 2 more full days before we leave on Friday. We are praying for that plane trip. She did so well on the 2-hour flight last week but this will be a bit different!

We are ready to get home. China is a fascinating country and there are so many interesting sights to see, but now that we have Sarah Grace our focus has shifted from sightseeing to her (as you can tell by the pictures we have taken!). We are ready to take her to her new home and introduce her to the people who love her. We'll see you soon. As always, thanks for your prayer and support. We are happy that we can share this journey with you!

Love -

Andy, Angie and Sarah Grace

Part 6b--Pictures!