Miss Photogenic!

HG is so photogenic! Everytime I get out the camera, she brings on the smiles. She really lkies having her picture taken and she loves looking at herself in pictures. I think we have a stinker on our hands!!

This is worth a million dollars!!!

Good Night, Sleep Tight!!!

HG fell asleep last night for the first time without crying or being in her mommy's arms. And then, to top it all off, she slept through the entire night without waking up once! Hallelujah!! She is a really good sleep buddy. She does not move at all during the night. This is our last post from Guiyang. It has been a blast!!!! We will see you in Guangzhou!

Photos of Miss Personality

HG and her mommy outside the hotel before a walk. This little girl loves to go,go,go and she loves her mommy. She is going to be a perfect fit at the Ragland residence. Tonight, while we were packing, she wanted to put her coat on because she wanted to go somewhere!

Is it too early for her to be rotten???

One of the best smiles a daddy could ever see!!!

How could you resist this??? I am in BIG trouble!!!

The Chinese Treasure...In Person!!!

HG and her daddy...for the second time!!



HG eating her chocolate right before bedtime. Didn't phase her. She was still out within 30 minutes and is still asleep.

HG on a stroll tonight. She loves going out. She also loves looking at the moon in the sky!

Last Full Day in Guiyang

Today is our final full day in Guiyang. We received HG's passport today. As I walked down the streets tonight, I thought a lot about this town. It is very, very poor. I am just amazed at what people will do here to make money to survive...clean shoes, bake sweet potatoes in a barrel on the side of the streets, carry baskets on their backs to carry goods for people, pull carts by hand loaded with furniture and many other things that most of us would never consider doing for such little money. Very eye-opening. I see these little children that are dirty out on the sidewalks selling papers, balloons, or just junk. I can't help but wonder "Where would Hannah Grace end up if we were not adopting her." I think that she would be a lot better off than a lot of these children because she was in such a wonderful foster home. I am ready to move on to the next step of bringing our baby home, but I will miss this place. It will always be very dear to my heart because of what I have seen and mostly because it is where my daughter is from. I will never forget how many people were staring at me when we first got here and how many more smile now. Or how uncomfortable I was when I arrived and how comfortable I am now. HG is doing much better. She had a very playful night. We were trying to pack. She was unpacking as we were packing. She is into everything. It is hard to believe that we have only had her for five days. Things have really changed in such a short period. A normal week of work for you has been an eternity here. Tonight, I thought about how things have been the past few days. It sometimes seems to be very frustrating when she wouldn't stop crying or won't let you hold her. What seems very difficult to us must be much more difficult to her. Her world has just been totally rocked. She has been taken from someone she loved so much and given to someone else who loves her very much. But at first, she doesn't know that. Everything has suddenly changed for her. The walls she looks at, the sounds she hears, the language she doesn't understand, the people she is looking at, her daily routine, her bed, her eating habits, the one who feeds her, and I could go on and on and on. But through all this, she has been one tough little cookie. Through all of the trauma and mourning that she has been through, she still has it in her to smile many, many times throughout each day. So, what do we have to complain about? Nothing. All we have to do is give God the praise for this wonderful Chinese Treasure that HE has given us. Praise the Lord!!!!!!

GREG

More Photos!!!

Hannah Grace in her new outfit. Only 7 US dollars. I cannot believe how inexpensive things are here. With the way we like to shop, maybe we need to move here! LOL! (not really!)

Phamily photo...Here we are at the park. This is in front of a huge wall outside the temple!


Cutie Pie!! HG loves pulling her hood over her eyes so I cannot see her and then she pulls it up and giggles like crazy. Her laugh will melt your heart!!! Mine has already melted 20 times over!!!

I dedicate this picture to my little Ana Claire. She is my monkey and I thought of her while we were at the park. She is a friend of ours from Alabaster who was also adopted from China. Her parents, Tom and Lisa, have been very dear to us throughout this incredible journey!!! Thanks Tom and Lisa (and AC, Clay and Josh)!!!

YUMMY! As I said, this baby loves to eat!! She really loves noodles and she enjoys feeding herself. Little miss independant.

Monkeys everywhere!!! It was unbelievable how many there were...And they truly were everywhere! They would come up to you and just sit at your feet. Amazing!!! Notice the lady with the bag. She is the one that I said was brave or stupid. It could have been one of these who was responsible for the pooh on my shoe! LOL!

Here is the BIG dude...Buddha! If I don't stop eating so much, this is what I am going to look like. I think that I need to start a diet!!

Our Best Day Yet!!!

Wow!!! They say after the first 72 hours, it starts getting better. No kidding. What a way to start the day. As you saw in one of my earlier posts, I finally got to hold my baby girl. Praise the Lord!! It was so awesome. One of the best feelings a man could ever have! I sang Jesus Loves Me to her and I could hardly sing without choking up. I even grabbed the video camera and videoed myself because Steph was in the shower. I haven't been able to hold her since, but that was enough to get me by for a couple of days. We have had the best day. Not much crying at all and a lot, I mean a lot of playing. No nap either, and still going strong at 8pm. She is getting a little cranky, but she is a ball of energy. She takes after her daddy. LOL! We went to the park today. It was ultracool. I have never seen so many monkeys in all my life. They were running around everywhere. You will see in my posts when I post pics of how they were so close to us. They were jumping on people and running around. It was crazy. One lady was feeding them and they jumped all over her. I thought to myself, "Now this Chinese woman is very brave or very stupid!" I was even lucky enough to step in my first pile of monkey poop. That stuff really smells. Dogs don't have anything on monkeys. I got it all in the van and even in the hotel room. Advice for anyone who comes to China and visits a park with a lot of monkeys in it...Watch for the monkey poop and if you step in it, be sure and clean your shoes before you go to your room. That is one thing I can say I have done that my friends have not. Oh yeah, and using a toothbrush to clean my shoes in the bathtub was not very cool. It was Steph's toothbrush. I washed it out with peroxide after I used it. Shhhhh! She'll never know. We went and visited a temple. That was pretty neat. There was a BIG statue of Buddha in there. He is a pretty BIG dude! We then visited the Pagoda. It is 500 years old and has a lot of history. Don't really know any of the history, but it has a lot of it. Anyway, we are having more and more fun every day here in Guiyang. We only have one more full day here and it is off to Guangzhou. We will miss this place. The people aren't staring as much. They are starting to smile at us. You can tell many Americans do not visit this place. It is very poor but we really enjoy it. The food has been great. Tonight, we ate a huge meal and it was only $18 for 5 adults and HG. She is one BIG eater. She loves noodles. I cannot believe she is still running around. As I sit here watching her sitting in her mommy's lap kicking her little feet, I just jsut realized the she doesn't have a clue how much of a blessing she truly is!! I cannot wait until the day that she is old enough so she can understand so I can tell her that. But I am not going to wish her life away. That time will come. She must be worn out right now!! Well, I could write all night long and I am probably boring you, but I will post again later with some pictures. Take care.

GREG

Hallelujah!! Daddy is holding his baby girl!!!!

Daddy is finally holding his baby girl. She was taking a bath and when she finished, she came to me. She cried a little and I started singing "Jesus Loves Me" to her and she stopped crying. She put her arms around me and put her head on my shoulders. It was absolutely priceless!!!

What a precious little girl!!!!!!!!!!

More Pictures of Hannah Grace

Hannah Grace eating with chopsticks. She was very determined to make this work. She is a strong headed little girl and very determined to do things on her own!!


Too cute!!!!

How adorable is this?

Every time that I take her picture, she reaches for the camera. She wants to wee herself. When she sees it, she just laughs and laughs.

Where was Hannah Grace found??

Hannah Grace was found at this hospital. It is very new and nice!!

This is the sign on the door to the room where Hannah Grace was left. Wow!!

Here is the bed where they found Hannah Grace. It was very emotional, but we are so thankful someone cared enough about her to leave her at a hospital where she would be taken care of. This bed is where her journey began on the way to her new home. Praise the Lord!!!!!

Pictures of Hannah Grace's Orphanage

These are pictures of us in front of the orphanage. We were allowed to take a few pictures inside, but we were asked to not post them on the internet. We will show them to you when we get home.

YUM YUM!!

Pop's bday!!! We had a feast on Pop's birthday. There was so much food. I only cost $32 for everybody together. We all ate a lot!!!

Hannah Grace really liked the yogurt. She didn't stop sucking on the straw until the container was empty. She is a great eater!!

What an Emotional Day!!

Hello everyone! It is 5am Thursday morning here in China. I have been trying for two hours to download pictures and it just isn't going to work. Tuesday night was my dad's birthday. Our guide made reservations at a restaurant and we had a feast. It was amazing. They had a private room set up for us and we had so much food it was unbelievable! It only cost $32 for everybody. The food was excellent! Yesterday morning was a very special time for us. We were able to go to the orphanage where HG was taken to when she was found. They took us on a tour and it was very nice. It is a pretty new building and is much bigger than I ever expected. It is just heartbreaking that they need orphanages so big. This one only places about 60 children internationally per year. They took us to the room where HG slept the first night she was there. I have some pictures, but they wouldn't let us take many inside. We went into the children's bedrooms. It was so cold and they do not use any heat. It was about 35-40 degrees in the bedrooms. It really was an eye-opening experience. When we walked into one room that was full of children, this little girl just ran up to us and started hugging everybody. The little boys all brought their chairs and would sit them at your feet so you could sit down. They were so precious and I just wanted to bring all of them home. To think that a 2-year old would offer you their chair. Wow! We need to send some of our kids from America over here for a couple of weeks so they can appreciate the lives that they have. I am so glad we have an opportunity to adopt a child from China and I would do it 1000 times if I could. All of the children were really glad to see us and I would have loved to just stay there and work with them! As I was there, I just wanted to cry, but I couldn't in front of all of them. What a memory that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. And the great part of it was, all of these children were so happy! I give God the praise for that and it is my prayer that each one of them will be placed in a loving home someday. When we left the orphanage, we headed to the hospital where HG was found. Thomas, our guide, said we could go into the hospital, but we probably wouldn't be able to go to exactly where she was found. As we went into the lobby, we found the sign that named the area she was found in. It was on the third floor. My heart was pounding. We then got on the elevator and made our way to the third floor. As the door opened, I was becoming very anxious and somewhat shakey. HG was found in bed #4. We walked down the hallway and the first room had a sign on it that said beds 1-3. Oh my! Now my heart was racing!! I thought, this is so close to where our baby was left. We walked a little farther and there it was on the door - beds 4-6. Emotional time!! My eyes filled with tears! The door was cracked and Thomas pushed it open. There it was...Bed #4. It then became very real to me. Someone walked in this room with our precious Angel and left her alone in this bed. I am not sure how it happened, but I do know that it did happen. And the amazing thing about it is that this was all a part of God's perfect plan. His plan for the begiining of the journey for us to receive our daughter. I pray for HG's mother, wherever she may be. I am thankful that she loved her enough to leave her at a hospital where she would be taken care of. I am also very thankful that we were able to go to these places. This really helped us a lot and will be things that we can keep in our hearts forever. I also thank Thomas for making arrangements so all of this could happen. I will post pictures as soon as it will allow me to. Keep us in your prayers. HG will not let Steph sit down while she is awake. Every time that Steph sits down, she really gets upset. We are not sure why, but we know that it will pass. Stephanie is very tired and needs some rest. I think her arms are about to fall off. I would like to help, but still no luck on holding her. She did, however, say "Daddy" in English several times yesterday. That was very encouraging!! She has an incredible smile that will probably help her get a lot of things from me in the future. That's probably not a good thing!! lol! I just love her to death and I absolutely cannot wait until I can hold her in my arms. Thanks again for all your prayers!!!

GREG

The Ragland Family

Here we are!!! The Ragland family. The three of us!! If you will notice, no beard for Greg - notice that BIG double chin!!!


Mommy and her baby in the taxi. She loves her Mommy!! Praise the Lord!

How cute is this????

More Wally World

Hannah Grace wanted everything that she could get her hands on. Imagine that. She seems to be a real shopper. Look out pocket book, here she comes!!!!

She really liked the bear. When I was little, I really liked "The Bear" too! (Bear Bryant) She is truly my daughter! LOL She just giggled and giggled. Priceless moment!!

My favorite thing about Wal-Mart was that they actually had almost all of their registers open. I'm moving to China! lol - not really!

Wal-Mart - China Style

In the cab on the way to Wal-Mart in China for the first time!!

The Wal-Mart sign...The best thing besides Hannah Grace that Stephanie has seen since we have been in China!!! LOL!!!

Hannah Grace really liked Wal-Mart. It was a pretty neat experience!!

Our Little Princess!!

Too Cute!!!!!!

Our first time to hold our little princess!!!

Sound asleep!!! What a beautiful baby girl. I can only post a few at a time, but I will get as many on here as I can. Thank you Lord for letting these pictures go through so all of our wonderful friends can see our baby girl. I am sorry for the delay, but I did keep trying and it is working for now. Thanks to all of you for your love and prayers!!

GREG

Gotcha Day Photos

Here are some pictures of our baby girl. The lady with her is her foster mother. What a wonderful lady she is! Thank you Lord for giving our little girl such loving foster parents. We will always be grateful for them!!!

First Picture from China

I think one downlaoded. If so, this is her foster family and us when we got her! Praise God!!!

The First 24 Hours

We have had Hannah Grace for more than 24 hours now. What an experience. It has been wonderful, but it has also been very difficult. She is bonding with Steph fairly well and not so much with me. She will not let me hold her yet. We thought that it might be the beard, so I shaved it off. That didn't work. It will just take time. HG is really missing her foster mother. I give God the praise that she had such a wonderful foster home. They say that they have a much harder time if they come from a foster home than from an orphanage. That seems to be the case with HG. I am thankful for that. It is better for us to have a few tough days and to know that she has been taken care of for the past 22 months. I am still giving God the praise that her foster parents were Christians. That is very rare in China and it just shows me even more that God has had a perfect plan for us the entire time. We went to Wal-Mart Chinese style today. It was very interesting. HG really seemed to like it. She was pulling everything off the shelves and was really happy while we were in there. That spells trouble for me - two women in the house that love Wal-Mart (I better get another jobe on the side! lol). Wal-Mart here is a lot the same and there are also a lot of differences. They had piles of dried meat (chickens and pigs) in the middle of the isles. The entire store is underground. It was a very neat experience. The biggest difference is most of their registers are open. Imagine that!! The food here has been pretty good. VERY different. We are going out for dinner tonight for my Dad's birthday. Okay, right now my wife is celebrating while I am typing. HG has her first poopy diaper. Happy now, not so much in the future. This is not a Kodak moment. Keep us in your prayers. This is such a wonderful time and words cannot even begin to explain it. HG is beautiful and has an incredible smile. I am sorry that I still don't have any pictures for you. Please be patient with us. The internet in Guiyang is not very good. It will not let me download any pictures. I have honestly tried everything several times. We probably will not be able to post any until Saturday. I am sorry for that, but now you have something to look forward to. I will post again tomorrow. God is good, all the time! We love ya'll!!!

GREG

GOTCHA Day!!!

The time has finally come!! We got our sweet little Hannah Grace today. Words cannot even explain how much joy we are filling right now! We were able to meet her foster parents. That was a true blessing! They are Christians and have been teaching Hannah Grace about Jesus. They were such wonderful people and they have taken such great care of our little girl. We arrived in Guiyang around noon today (Sun., Jan 21) and met our guide, Thomas. He is such a wonderful guide. After we settled in our rooms, we took a stroll to the market to buy some drinks. That was very interesting. It was about a 15 minute walk and I don't think I have ever been stared at so much. The population of Guiyang is about 3.5 million. I really believe that we are the only Americans in this city. We caught a taxi back to the hotel. My dad and I were in the first taxi and we arrived at the hotel a couple of minutes before Stephanie, Martha and Thomas. We were unloading the taxi and this lady walked by with a child on her back. She was an older lady and she was accompanied by an older man. They were looking at me, along with everyone else, but there look was a little different. I immediately teared up (just like I am doing right now!) and told my dad that I just knew that was Hannah Grace. I could feel it!! Stephanie's taxi then arrived and I told her that I thought that I just saw Hannah Grace. My heart was racing and I told Thomas. We walked into the hotel lobby (I am now crying and typing at the same time) and there was our little baby girl. How precious she was! I could not believe it. We were able to spend about 2 hours with her foster parents. That was an incredible experience. One that I will never be able to explain in words!! The experience of a lifetime. When they left the hotel, they were both crying and it was a very emotional time. They gave us pictures of HG from when they first got her at 14 days old. What a blessing!!! I thank God so much for this wonderful day and this wonderful blessing that He has given us. I must stop typing now before I drop a tear into the keyboard and it shocks me or blows up. We send our love to each of you!!!

In Christ,

GREG

Our Itinerary!!!!

We received our itinerary today!

Jan. 19 - 8:10 am Leave Birmingham on Northwest.

Jan. 20 - 10:45 pm Arrive in Guangzhou.

Jan. 21 - 10:30 am Leave Guangzhou for Guiyang.

***Around 4:00 pm UNITED WITH HANNAH GRACE!!!

Jan. 22 - Jan. 26 Adoption Process

Jan. 27 - 12:30 pm Leave Guiyang. Go to Guangzhou.

Jan. 28 - Free day!!!

Jan. 29 - Medical appointment

Jan. 30 - 10:30 am American Consulate appointment.

Jan. 31 - 4:30 pm Receive Hannah Grace's Visa!!!!

Feb. 01 - 8:30 am Leave Guangzhou for the U. S.

**4:30 pm Arrive in Birmingham, Alabama!!!!!

Please feel free to e-mail us or leave comments on the blog!

We will try to keep it updated daily. However, we may be a bit busy with our Little Princess!

We leave for China in 7 days!!!!!!!!!

We leave for China in 7 days!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are so excited!!!!!!!!!

Please pray for Hannah Grace and her foster mother. We have been told that they are very close. I am so thankful for the care that she has given our daughter. I pray that she is richly rewarded for her kindness, sacrifice, and love.

WOW!!!!!

How Great Is Our God!

WOW!

I am so amazed!!!!!

I know that many of you have shared our stress, excitement, and turmoil through this very long journey. I appreciate all of our WONDERFUL family and friends who have been so supportive with prayers and words of encouragement!!

As we have traveled this road, my Heavenly Father has shown me His faithfulness and love... and patience. I am so thankful that my God hears me when I pray and cry out to Him.

There is a song that I have sung throughout this process. When things went well, I would sing it. When times were hard, I would sing it ... to remind me of who my God is.

This song is written by Chris Tomlin. (I have put the chorus first.)

How Great is our God

How great is our God, sing with me,

How great is our God, all will see

How great, how great is our God.

The splendor of a King, clothed in majesty,

Let all the earth rejoice, all the earth rejoice.

He wraps Himself in light, and darkness tries to hide

And trembles at His voice, trembles at His voice.

How great is our God, sing with me,

How great is our God, all will see

How great, how great is our God.

Age to age He stands, and time is in His hands,

Beginning and the end, beginning and the end.

The Godhead, three in one: Father, Spirit, Son,

The Lion and the Lamb, the Lion and the Lamb.

Name above all names, worthy of all praise,

My heart will sing how great is our God.

We have Travel Approval!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are overjoyed to announce that we have received our travel approval! This has brought us great joy! Our God is so faithful concerning all His promises!

We hope to go to China next week!!!!!

Hannah Grace, we are so excited to be your parents! We cannot wait to have you in our arms! You are a wonderful blessing from God!

Jeremiah 31 : 13b

"... I will turn their mourning into gladness; I will give them comfort and joy instead of sorrow."

Proverbs 13 : 12

"Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a longing fulfilled is a tree of life."

How perfectly stated!