Saturday, January 21, 2012

Oops!



Hey guys! I have gotten quite a few nice little reminders that I have yet to update you all on our family since returning home...Oops!
I HAVE been actually, but from now on all of my updating {which will be fairly frequent} will be on our home blog, beloved.
I am SO sorry for the confusion but really would love to see y'all over at beloved.
Head on over to
andrewandannagrace.blogspot.com 
bookmark, follow, make yourself at home, get comfy, read, pray, and join us through our life and all that God has planned for our family.
I have posted a few photos of Ainsley's first photoshoot, the 3 together, Ainsley's Doctor Appointment and our MIRACULOUS HEALER, and Andrew's Gotcha Day.
Thank you all for following us to China and back and I can't wait to see you over at

beloved

Lots of love,
Ashton

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Home Home Home

We are home. My oh my how amazing it is to be home.
Our journey home was terribly long but we all did well, considering circumstances. We drove to Hong Kong on Saturday morning, flew to Detroit at 1045 am and then had an EIGHT hour layover there then to HOME. It was so amazing to be welcomed home by our closet family and friends and so refreshing to share Ainsley with them and see how much they love her too! God is so good.
We went to iHop with a few of our sweet friends {how cute} and welcomed in the New Year there {how fun is that one?} :)
We arrived home at about 12:30 and saw that Santa had come, unfortunately Ting Ting was already asleep so she did not experience that, but the rest of us did. We had a fabulous mini Christmas!










Thank you all so much for your prayers as we journeyed to Ainsley. They are so coveted and we will be forever grateful. Our journey with Ainsley Ting is just beginning and I cannot wait to see where God leads our family in 2012.





















So, Happy New Year Y'all!

Friday, December 30, 2011

Red Couch and HOME

Today was our last official day in China. Tomorrow bright and early we will pack our bags and leave China. We arrive home Saturday night at 9pm. We are SO excited. Can't wait to hug all of our family!
I will explain more about today later when I have better internet and more time {like I will the rest of the trip} but for now here are our red couch photos...ENJOY!






Next step...HOME!

I really apologize for my lack of posting this trip...I will go back, post, and give my reasons why:)

LOVE for the last time from China!

Slacking 3; Safari!

Today we went to the Safari park in GZ. It was absolutely amazing. We got there at about 11am and stayed until 4pm. It was so much fun and there was SO much to do. We spent the day feeding baby tigers, petting koala bears, going on a safari through Asia and Africa and feeding giraffes! While feeding the giraffes long branch like things {which were 15 yuan} my dad found it would be hilarious to put the brand on my head so the giraffe would come after my head because it was food. Background; I am terrified of big animals, but wanted my picture with these giraffes because they were so amazing. So as he put this branch over my head a huge giraffe comes sweeping his tongue to my head/neck. I literally fell to the ground in absolute horror and couldn't breathe for quite awhile after...on the bright side i am sure it brightened everyone else's day! ;) We also discovered that Ting Ting does NOT like animals...any of them quite honestly and she screamed a lot of the safari. Unless we were a good 10 feet away and separated by glass. Lovely. We met a fabulous little monkey baby who I wanted to take home and actually begged for...apparently he wouldn't make it through customs...sigh. As you can tell it was such a great day! We loved all of it and would suggest it to ANYONE who is in GZ.
We then got to meet the amazing Cross Family for dinner and walked around Shaiman Island. It was so nice to be around Americans {we don't have a group this trip..sadface} and to meet their precious children! They are such an amazing and inspirational family.
It was a fabulous day!!

Thursday, December 29, 2011

Consulate

Today, at 9 am we made it official...

this little girl is OURS. 


for forever and ever AMEN.

How GREAT is our God!!!! 
           
We fly home Saturday!!
We love you so much Ainsley Faith Ting RICE!!
{ps. please scroll down to see the updates from the past week due to my slacking! so sorry!!!}

Monday, December 26, 2011

Slacking 1; Last Days in Xi'an

Due to the fact that I am such a pitiful slacker at this whole blogging thing while in China {seriously...internet is something awful and i forget} I figured it would be nice of me to update y'all on our happenings..past and present.

So here is our pictures of the last days in Xi'an, Ting Ting's first flight and all that jazz. All pictures because they tell the story way better than I could ever hope to...