It is LEAH DAY!!!

Jeff writes:
Hello from Guangzhou China. After an early morning and a good flight from Beijing we were driven to the White Swan hotel and got settled into our room. An hour later we were off again and this time it was to finally meet our new daughter. We were all very anxious and full of anticipation. The scene was really quite interesting. There were probably twenty other couples in a room waiting for their children. You could see on the faces of everyone there that life was about to change. Moments later there were children for all of the couples in that room, including our Leah. The Newells formerly of Norway would like to announce that we are now officially a family of six! A scripture verse in James began running through my mind from the moment I held her in my arms for the first time. James 1:17 says "Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows". We have our perfect gift! Anne Marie would like to add her thoughts to this posting but before I sign off I would like to say that we have been very blest by the new friends we have made this last week. Our stay in Beijing with the other folks who are adopting was truly wonderful and we are hoping that they have all received their children by now and are experiencing the joy that we are experiencing. We will be reunited with everyone again on Friday here in Guangzhou and flying out together on the following Wednesday. We also have three new friends that we met today. Kurt, Jan and Aidan. Bonded together because of our shared experience today.

Two last comments for our gang from Beijing who are scattered around China tonight. The beds here at the White Swan are actually comfortable and Chairman Mao is still ticking!




Anne Marie writes:
Yes, today has surely been a very emotional day for all of us. So far Leah has been very quiet and we have not seen any grieving. I don't know if that's good or bad. It sure made the day a lot easier for us, but I really hope she will grieve over what she is leaving. I want to know that she can attach and love, so that she will be able to love us. Kai told me not to worry about it. He said she will be with us all the time so she has no choice but to bond with us. I hope he is right.

She is beautiful. Like Jeff said she goes to all of us equally,that was really helpful today because she weighs a ton. She is short and super chubby. I have never had a kid that chubby before. I wonder if they tried to fatten her up before we came. She looks much skinnier in the referral pictures. She is beautiful, and she actually has a little bit of hair now. We might be able to stick a bow in it tomorrow, we will see. We are very happy and very tired. We need to get to bed, but we promise to post more tomorrow with more pictures. Thanks for praying for us and thank you for all your comments. It is so nice to know you are all following our journey.