Visit to YiWu

I will send you a disk of all the photos when we get home, I can't seem to email them from here.

I want to begin by apologizing for the fact that we have not been able to post photos. I think it is impossible to do here without a laptop. Hopefully we will find out that is not true before we arrive home but until we do you will just have to believe me when I tell you Tia is adorable and the kids are having a great time vying for her attention.

Today we had a very emotional day. We started out by driving the 1.5 hours to YiWu which is the city where Tia was found and lived for her first 19 months. We stopped to get a photo taken for Tia's passport. Our next stop was Tia's finding spot which was at the ChouZhou hospital on a chair inside a room where they administer anitbiotics. Tia was named ChouZhou after this hospital. It was very interesting and very sad. Tia laughed out loud for the first time as we entered the building - silly girl :) Then we went out for a delicious lunch with the vice director of the Baby Garden where Tia lived. The food was incredible. It was a wonderful gesture of the YiWu SWI and we very much appreciated it.

Our last stop was at the Baby Garden. It was funny to see how excited Tia got when she saw her former nanny, the very one who came to bring her yesterday. Tia started laughing and smiling. They put her in her crib and she was standing there jumping up and down - this was the same little girl who couldn't even sit up the day before because of what we now think was shock and grief. By the end of the visit we had her number! She is now walking around with us holding her hands, I think the worst of the grieveing is over! In fact she is sitting on my lap playing with Isabella right now, smiling and saying something like "more" for a game they are playing. It is so great to see her coming out of her shell.

I was really happy to get to spend time and photograph and video two little girls of my friends Judy and Angel. Please see my note to you at the bottom of this email. We had a wonderful time in YiWu and are so thankful for the photos of the place Tia was found and spent the first 20 months of her life.

Our last stop of the day was to the Civil Affairs building to be declared Kristiana Hope Witt's parents and so this little girl is officially ours! Sorry we cannot access our aol or yahoo to ready or answer emails and I cannot seem to bypass the Great Firewall of China.

Lots of love from Hangzhou, land of a new Little Bitty Witty :)

TO Judy and Angel: - I hope to get the photos posted but if not please be encouraged that I got 10 or more photos of the girls. I was able to give Kaiya a very big cuddle and pray for her, XiXi, who they call by both her first names is toddling on her own! I got a series of photos of her and I can tell you she is so very proud of herself, and all the nannies were very proud of her also. Kaiya was asleep when we first arrived but I was really happy that they woke her up. Jonah did the videotaping that Angel sent and I hope he did well, it wasn't nearly 20 minutes but there is video for you and I think of Xixi too. Xi Xi is a couple inches bigger than Tia -so I think an 18 -24 month size. Kaiya is very tall, even 3 inches taller than XiXi - she may even wear a size 3T. I got an excellent photo of all three girls together that I was really excited about! I saw your girls today!

Lots of love to everyone,

Ellie