Our Journey of Love to Emma Grace: August 2012

Our Journey of Love to with Emma Grace!

In March 2012 we mailed a care package to Emma Grace to the Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute. A box filled with love including clothing, toys, cameras, jump drives, nanny gifts and more headed to the other side of the world in hopes of finding Emma Grace and making her smile.

yes..........all this fit in to that!!

..............I traced its journey to the other side of the world for as long as I could. I knew it had made it to China, but that was all I could get. Did it arrive to the Children's home?? And if it did make it there.......did the items make it to Emma Grace. We would have no way of finding out for sure until we went to China to pick her up and bring her home...........

On August 6th, 2012 - Emma Grace's Gotcha Day - we received the care package answer when we saw the familiar pink fuzzy blanket peaking out of one of the large bags being carried in during Emma Grace's arrival to the waiting room we were sitting in that wonderful morning in Shanghai, China. The clothing still looked brand new, but I had bought way too large for her to have worn. I was happy and surprised to find out that the package did make it to her then home. I wondered if Emma had seen these items or if they stayed in the box the whole time as I heard could sometimes be the case. Back at the hotel Emma Grace seemed to find familiar comfort in the soft dolly that was included in the box. She also seemed familiar with the stuffed elephant as well as the car rattles. The thumb drives were there - after popping them in I would find out that the staff had uploaded 147 pictures of Emma Grace on one for me. Once home Scott took the disposable camera to CVS for developing and..........10 wonderful pictures of our baby were another extra added blessing.

I will never know what kind of life Emma Grace lived in the children's home. I will not know if she experience love and attention, but I know that she was cared for. She was happy and healthy. We will be forever thankful to the staff for that! And we will be forever thankful for the pictures of our daughter they so kindly shared with us.

from the disposable camera:

Here she is with the stuffies and blanket we sent

Here she is the with the car rattles we sent

A FAV: Here she is holding the letter to the Director we included in the care package

ONE FOR THE HEART: Here she is with the photo album turned to our picture..............

from the jump drive:

For nearly 7 months I searched the internet looking for pictures of Emma Grace. I would find many that I wondered if they could be....but they weren't. Now that we were all finally together, I found myself with 150+ that were waiting for me nearly the whole time...............as well as the real thing now forever in our arms!