“Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west.” Isaiah 43:5

Just look at that happy little face! Our sweet little Grace was found on August 8, 2004 by the local police inside the Jiu Long (“Night Dragon”) Stone Mill, Aishan Township, Yizhou City. She was approximately a day old, and was suffering from a fever, and so the police sent her to the local hospital to recover. By August 9, she had recovered from the fever and the Yizhou Civil Bureau then approved that she would be raised by the Yizhou orphanage (Yizhou SWI). When she first arrived, she was 2.9 kg, 48 cm, and said to cry loudly! She was given the name Fu Qing Rong at that time.

At 1 month, she could lift her chin and focus on people’s faces when they were feeding and talking to her. At 2 months, her eyes could follow objects and she could smile and make noises. At 3 months, she liked to study her little hands and stretch out her legs when her nanny would hold her up. By 4 months, she could roll over and was very active. She would turn her head around to noise and she had a good response. By 17 months, she was described as having “mediocre” intelligence development (which we optimistically believe may mean average), and was walking! She is content to play by herself or with her friends and likes to listen and find fun in music. She can form one to two syllable words and she likes to hug a big towel when she is falling asleep. We have been told that she is very active, loves to play with colorful toys, and is very attached to her caregivers, but wary of strangers. She is described as very cute, smiling often and a smart and lovely little girl who loves to watch her surroundings.

On each update, it is always mentioned that Grace loves to eat and eats well! On her most recent update, from January 2006, it even says that she gets very excited when she sees food. It looks like she will fit right in with our family!

We had the privilege of meeting a wonderful family who adopted Grace’s dear friend Selah from the orphanage in Yizhou. Apparently, Grace and Selah had been in the orphanage together from nearly the beginning, and were very close. They traveled to China in May to get Selah, and generously brought us back as much information about Grace as possible. They shared precious pictures they had received from the orphanage director of Grace and her two good friends, and even went so far as to give us gifts from Grace’s town. We rejoiced that she had two good friends in her orphanage, although were saddened when we learned they would both be adopted shortly, leaving Grace alone in the SWI. They told us how wonderful the orphanage workers had seemed and sang the praises of the job they had done to raise their little Selah with such meager funding. It was a treasured gift they gave to us, and only whet our appetite for more news of our sweet baby girl. She looks healthy, and has grown and changed so much, but is still the beauty that we saw in her first referral pictures (despite a crazy new haircut!).