pictures from today and yesterday

I forgot to tell you that we found out from the medical appointment that Lily weighs 20 lbs and is seventy-something centimeters tall. I don't know exactly how many because they wrote 7P cm. Hmmm. Anyway, she's about Old Navy size 12-18 months size pants tall, or 7P cm in Mandarin.

I had to leave the little darling with Kyle and Phyllis today while I finished her immigration paperwork. I won't bore you with all the details - in fact I'm sure I don't even have all of them. I'll just give you the highlights that were communicated to me: there was poop, it wasn't in a diaper, a wet diaper was left on long enough to cause a diaper rash for which no Desitin could be found (it was in the only pocket of the diaper change thingie - I like to hide things in crazy places). Mom, Dad and Tahra, you've just moved into the #2 and #3 babysitting spots, so get ready, and don't wear your good pants because apparently Lily likes to poop on her babysitters. Actually, when I walked back in she was happy as a lark, doing laps around the room with her Grammie. Clearly the babysitters were the only ones traumatized.

We've watched some of the videos from last week and can't believe how much Lily has changed. She has shown us more of her spicy little personality every day. I can't stand to watch the gotcha day video-- way too sad but we didn't know so then. We're still planning on posting it for you guys but every time we try it times out.

Today we officially hit the China wall and are ready to come home. Totally over all of it-- each other (except her majesty, of course), the food, the hotel, our clothes, brushing our teeth out of a cup, warm drinks, restricted internet access, all of it. I don't know how we're going to make it to Wednesday. I would gladly make a lump sum donation to the Chinese economy if they would just let us go home early. I swear that's why they make us stay so long.

Here's what we want when we get home: Freddy's on the way home from the airport, Longhorn for breakfast, Chesters for lunch and Bigz for dinner (those are all burger places for the non-San Antonians). And I'm going to drink so much coffee that I'll be able to buzz around above the ground. I get about a tablespoon of coffee at breakfast every day and that is about a cup and a half less than I need to not feel like half of a human. We brought coffee to make in the room but it is always such a rush to get out of here that I don't get around to making it. Please tell me it's not going to be like that at home. There's three of us here and we hardly manage to make it to the bus on time. Pretty pathetic.

Tomorrow's Easter and instead of going to a church service in Chinese we're going to have our own here at the hotel. We have a pastor and some singers, and lots of cute dresses so we're good to go on our own. Easter has a whole new meaning to me now that I understand as a parent more of what it must have been like for God to sacrifice His son so that the rest of us might live. The new life that Easter represents is different to me this year too. As significant as the last week has been for Lily as she joined our family, it is ridiculously insignificant in light of the most important adoption that will happen to her, as a child of Christ. She is just ours for a very short time, but Christ's for eternity. It would be better for her to live in an orphanage her whole earthly life and spend eternity in heaven than to live in a cushy American home and not be adopted into Christ's family. We are humbled by the responsibility of teaching her about Jesus, but know her salvation is in His hands alone. Tomorrow as we gather to celebrate Easter, she'll hear for the first time about Jesus' death and resurrection which made our salvation possible. We know she doesn't understand much yet, but we're pretty sure she soaks up more than we think so we're glad to be getting an early start.

We hope your Easter Sunday is blessed and joyous, and that you remember the sacrifice of the One who wants each of us adopted into His family.