Welcome Home!

Our Calvary Family had a surprise Welcome Home party for the 3 of us on Sunday after morning worship! It is such a blessing to be a part of our church family. The LORD is so very GOOD, and He often uses the church to show some of the goodness of His Love. If you don't have a church family, we highly recommend one!

Abigail wasn't sure about all of the attention at first, but she warmed up to everyone before the lunch was over :)

Abby loved the gifts and of course all of the Pink!

She decided to give us some poses at dinner that night. She is such a JOY...it's hard to remember what life was like before her :)

Love that Smile!

We're Home!

We were so relieved to see the sight in the above picture. After about 15 hours in the air between China and Dallas we are FINALLY Home!!! Abigail did great the entire time. She only slept a total of 3 hours at most, though. We landed at DFW a little early and had a great group to meet us. It was a little overwhelming for our tired little girl. She had a meltdown that prompted our departure. A BIG Thank You to everyone that came to meet us. We know that is a long drive and DFW is not fun. We appreciate your love and support. Someone that took pictures will have to pass some on to us - we forgot to get our camera out.
We drove into our driveway to this very appealing sight - our house super cleaned, lights on waiting for us, and decorated :) Thank you Sabrina, Misti, Erin & Emma, and all others that made it such a special place to come home to!

Abigail loved all of the signs and decorations!

We went outside Saturday afternoon to get a look in the daylight at all of the decorations. Abigail LOVED it! THANK YOU - you made us all smile :)

With Much Love,
Monte, Missy, & Abigail

More Sight-Seeing in Guangzhou

**Hello everyone! Monte & Missy sent me several short posts that cover their last few days in China...make sure to scroll down below this post to see what they have been up to this week! - Jill**

On Tuesday morning we went to the Chen Clan Academy. It was beautiful...wish we had taken more pictures and had a little more time to look around.
We had our Oath Taking Ceremony at the U.S. Consulate that afternoon - which is the final piece in the adoption process. When we land in San Francisco, Abigail Weaver will officially be an American citizen!
We ate at a Dim Sum restaurant in the hotel that evening. It was quite an experience...good food and good atmosphere.

Love,
Missy

www.adoptionbug.com/TheWeavers
www.justlovecoffee.com/TheWeavers

Consulate Appointment & Shamian Island

After breakfast on Monday we needed to stay in our room until 11a.m. while Rosa went to the U.S. Consulate as our advocate in the next step of completing the adoption. We had to be there in case the Consulate had any questions - they would call our room to ask. Only a call from Rosa to say all was well came. We went to lunch at a McDonald's a few blocks away where Abigail had her first ice cream cone :) It was LOTS of FUN!

For the afternoon we went back to Shamian Island for a little more shopping and to get the group photo on the red couch at the White Swan Hotel. The White Swan was a beautiful hotel and had lots of room to sit and walk around in lobby areas. We really liked everything about our hotel except for the lobby - it doesn't really have any areas to just sit.

Love,
Missy

www.adoptionbug.com/TheWeavers
www.justlovecoffee.com/TheWeavers

Shopping & Smoothies

Sunday we went shopping on Shamian Island and had lunch at Pizza Hut. Abby and Monte had fun posing in our hotel lobby before heading out to shop a little for the morning. The hotel staff started putting up the Christmas tree on Thanksgiving Day. Abigail loves it, and has her eye on a particular pink plush goat under the tree. The pink goat is a character in a cartoon that is apparently very popular here in China. As we've mentioned before, the Pizza Huts here are fancier than at home. They have many food selections and are reasonably priced. Abby loves the mixed berry smoothie there!

Love - Missy

www.adoptionbug.com/TheWeavers
www.justlovecoffee.com/TheWeavers

TB Results and Eating Italian in China

Two of the other America World families arrived late Friday night. They had to go to get their medical exam and we had to get Abby's TB test results. We were a little concerned that she would have another meltdown at the sight of the medical clinic, but she was very brave. She seemed a little nervous but nothing else. She even shared some of her treats with a little boy that was crying and screaming. It was very crowded on Saturday because that is when most families have to get their child's exam. Since our adoption is expedited we were able to get Abby's exam earlier in the week - very thankful for that. Once they looked at her arm we were out of there. She was negative for TB - again very thankful for that result! After leaving the clinic we went to a shop on the Island. Abigail picked out a pretty pink Chinese dress. We tried it on when we got to the room. As you can see, she LOVED it! This girl is all about the color pink.

That evening we went back to this Italian Restaurant that is not far from our hotel. We had been there for lunch once before. The other families went that evening too. It was very fun to be with all of the families again, and the food was good. We met a waitress that speaks Cantonese. She and Abby have become friends :)

Love,
Missy