Day 1 and 2 with Lily

What a day yesterday was! The receiving of the babies was pure chaos. We left the hotel at 3:00 and had a 10 minute drive to the Civil Affairs Office. When we arrived there were all these little vans that our guide told us were from the various orphanages that had babies being adopted today. 103 babies total. Our agency had 8. Our hotel is filled with families adopting babies.

Anyway, as we were going in, a van of babies was being unloaded. They were all wearing the same outifits and each one had a "nanny". They weren't our groups, but they were so cute. The butterflies really set in and I felt like was going to get sick! We went up the elevator to the 26th floor and when the doors opened all you could hear was crying and cooing. We walked into the room and 6 babies were dressed in pink puffy outfits. Mr. Lu, the Nanfeng Orphanage Director was standing there so I knew the babies were for our group. I couldn't pick out Lily, but Tim spotted her right away. She was the only one whose hat didn't cover her ears. Her ears were sticking out like a little elf's. We waited for them to call her name. We showed them our passports and the nanny holding Lily was smiling at us and telling Lily, "Mama, Dada". She was pointing to us.

Lily looked scared and on the verge of tears. The director told our guide that Lily had gotten car sick on the way up but was fine now. Poor baby. She has probably never traveled so far.

Slowly, after a little time, she handed Lily to me and she immediately started crying. I just talked to her a little and bounced her. Jack made some funny noises to her face and she laughed! When she cries or laughs she gets 2 little dimples below her mouth. I have never seen dimples below the mouth but my little Lily has them. We took pictures, handed some gifts to the director and the nannies and then we left. The next group had to come in. They told us that the first night we are only her guardians and we have this night to decide if we want to keep her. (Like there was any question!)

We boarded the bus first and sat there for 15 minutes by ourselves not knowing what happened to the rest of the group. Lily was screaming at that point! Jack said, "Hey, let's give her some Cherrios". We did and she loved them. She didn't cry the rest of the time. Finally the rest of the group showed up. They were waiting in the Lobby waiting for Cindy our guide to finish up some business with Mr. Lu. ( I wish I could have recorded his voice-very very deep and he is so serious. He never smiled the whole time, but you could tell he is very loving in his own way and really wants us to send photos of Lily in the furture.-He is in the picture above-not smiling!)

When we got to the hotel we took off Lily's clothes-layer after layer. For those of not familiar with China, the Chinese dress their children like puff balls. Most houses don't have central heating so it is necessary. They don't believe in children being cold-ever. In fact, we have been dying from heat while inside. The hotels, which have central heat, just BLAST the air. So we are freezing when outside and burning up when inside. Lily had 5 layers on. When we finally got down to HER she was so tiny! Her feet and legs are the size of Jack when he was about 4 months old. She has 6 teeth, not 4 and a Mongolian spot on her back. She also had a pronounced inoculation mark on her arm. Cindy said all Chinese people have those. They use a different method for the shots. She needed a bath, but I didn't want to tramatize her too much so we waited until today and she did scream! We put her in her pajamas and gave her a Chinese bottle- rice cereal, milk formula with sugar. We want to keep her on the same thing she has been eating while in China so as not to disrupt her digestive system. We will discontinue the sugar when we get home. She did have a slight fever and was tugging on her ears a bit. We gave her some tylenol and she seemed much better. She slept all night without much of a whimper. I kept waking up to look at her and make sure she was really there. I thought I might be dreaming. But it is real. I finally have my baby girl.

Cindy came by our room to check on us and she told us the Chinese character for "perfect" is a female symbol meshed with a male symbol. She said our family is now perfect with a boy and a girl. I have to agree although it was great before Lily too!

Today we all woke up at 6:00 and Lily cried in her crib until I picked her up. I forgot to mention that yesterday whenever she saw Tim she would scream. He basically couldn't even hold her. We think she wasn't around men much while in Foster care. This morning Tim was able to give her her rice/formula/sugar bottle. So that was an improvement!

She did laugh more this morning and Jack just cracks her up. At breakfast she wanted nothing to do with the highchair. I had to hold her. That was hard to manage.

We then boarded the bus again and went back to the civil affairs office to sign the paperwork and make her ours. We had to swear to care for Lily and never mistreat her or abandon her. They asked us what we wanted for her future. I said to grow up in a loving family where she can grow up to be a smart happy woman who contributes to society. We promised to give her a good education.

Mr. Lu then put a necklace on her which is a Chinese dragon that wards off evil. He also gave Lily a porcelin vase that was made in Jianxi Provence. In the box was a photo of Lily with her foster mother. It is priceless. I am so thankful to that woman for giving Lily a good start. She has obviously been loved and well cared for. Yesterday Mr. Lu gave us the camera that I sent back and our family album. The camera has 6 pictures left so there were some photos taken. I can't wait to develop those!

Lily is so sweet and very smart. She is very alert and is always looking around. You can tell from her eyes that she is trying to figure things out. She imitates noises and actions. Today we were playing with stacking cups and Jack would hit 2 together and then Lily would copy him. Jack then put one cup over his mouth and made a noise. Lily did the same. She loves looking at her hands. When she falls asleep she sucks three fingers. So cute! She will not let me put her down for a second without crying. I think this may last for sometime. It is hard to get ready. Tim has been awesome and is staying on top of being organized and making sure we have all the documents ready and money needed.

She did have a poop today which is very good. Some adopted babies can get very constipated at first.

We are off to meet our group in the hotel play room for pizza. I wonder if it will be any good. lily is asleep in my Baby Hawk mai tai carrier- right on my chest. This has been the best investment!

We are just having a blast. This is truly an experience of a lifetime.

Thanks for reading and for your heartfelt comments! We love hearing from everyone.

Also, Christine Swilhart-if you are reading this, thanks so much for the red Hanna Anderson snuggle suit. As you can see from the photos it is coming in quite handy!