She's Got Us!

Actul Post Time: November 5 2007 8 pm, Nanjing Time

WHAT A DAY THIS HAS BEEN! I so wish we could figure out how to get pictures on line for you all to see this little (hmpf) munchkin, who is now our daughter.... she is just wonderful, to put it mildly. I will recap the day's events first:

We woke up at about 6:30 am, before the 7 am alarm (!). I slept really well last night, thanks to the Melatonin, but DH didn't this time. We were so jazzed to get up and go that we were ready about 45 minutes before we had to leave. Our wonderful guide, Juliette, met us at 9:30 am while trying to get a hold of our driver... who was sleeping in the bus, in front of the hotel. It was slightly comical, as he raced around half awake getting us into his bus (its more a minivan, but they call it a bus). We then sped off from the hotel, dashing through insane traffic (DH called it The Chaos theory: there is order in the chaos, we just can't see it! As a mathematician, who has studied Chaos theory, I loved his analogy, especially coming from a physicist... they all believe, my DH included, that physics is THE science to study, not math... but I digress into an ongoing argument between us). 15 minutes into this drive through Nanjing streets, Juliette on the phone with this person and that person (the kids had arrived!), the driver driving franctically while calling this person and that person on his cell phone, the driver jumps out of our bus and starts talking to a cabby. Juliette finally confirms that the driver is lost and does not know how to take us to Civil Affairs. Ahhhhhh, lovely... the mantra that Formons has taught us came in handy "Stay calm, be pleasant and patient." Over four lanes of heavy traffic, our driver does a U turn, heads back the way we came and then somehow gets us to where we have to go and I have no clue how he did it. Juliette in the meantime is pointing out how beautiful some of the trees are. The driver then tries to pull up to the entrance, but the guy in charge of parking stands in front of our bus and they start arguing. Our driver says something to the effect of "in your face, I am going forward" and continues forward until he drops us off at the door (the parking guy is fine, he got out of the way.. eventually).

We jump out of the bus, grap our stuff and follow Juliette inside. She then turns left very quickly and then walks into this office, and there is Kaitlynn Chunmei (with a friend)! Oh my, oh my... here we thought we had to sign this and that paper and then we would see our daughter, but no, here she was. I immediately got down to 2 yr old level (on my knees), and started saying "Ni hao, ni hao Chunmei" and she just looked at me with those beautiful brown eyes. The nanny with her got her to say "Ni hao mama" and then grap my fingers. She then said "Ni hao baba". She then backed away, a little scared of what she had just done (poor baby). The nanny then distracted her by breaking into song and dance, which put a big smile on her face. The rest is a bit of blur for me, but somehow she ended up glued to DH and refused to go to anyone else for over 2 hours, and this during our picture taking too ( she was not pleased with this in the least). We got a chance to meet the Orphanage Director, the Maitren of the nanny's and one of the two nanny's who looked after Chunmei. We presented our gifts to everyone, and got "Thank You" from them all (in English). Thank Heaven's I had extra ones, cause I didn't expect so many people! We got a chance to ask a few questions (is she potty trained? Yes, but she wears a diaper, and we are supposed to ask her every hour if she has to go... to which DH queried, how are we supposed to ask her?, what does she eat? everything... more on this later, does she nap? yes after lunch... then it was broken off and explained that we would have a chance to ask more questions tomorrow).

Headed back to the hotel, which was a complete blur. In the room, she clung to DH for at least 2 hours, and then slowly, ever so slowly, she started to play. Then she sat with me and let me hold her and feed her. She was in three layers, and we wanted to get her cooled down - not something she wanted to do, but we finally got the sweater off, and then when she understood that she could hold it, she relaxed. We then got the other two layers off, which were drenched in sweat (poor thing) and into some PINK PJ's.. which she could not get over. She kept looking at the clasps and then at her tummy! She then played quietly, immitating things I would do, but not saying a word. Oh, I should explain that the nanny told Juliette that Chunmei (or Anmei, as she was called in the orphanage) is very outgoing and full of life which we were not seeing. So, then Juliette come over to our room at 3 pm, and started playing with her... and we saw the real Chunmei burst out! What a character she has - I told you Colette, I saw character in her visa pics... she has tonnes of it. She giggles when you tickle her, and lets out these big guffaws when she does something funny. She is stacking sponges now perfectly, as she figured out that if she squeeshes them together they stay put. She loves books, and asks all sorts of questions about what is pictured. She can say Zorro's name when she sees his pictures! We are working on the boys names.

We went down for the buffet dinner, and boy does she eat well. So we have eat, poop (yes, she pooped... and the hardware is the required kind for HER!), and now she is asleep! She is devine, sturdy (she must weigh over 30 lbs.. 24 mths clothing "just" fits, I would get her more 2 or even 3's - no news on shoes yet - she has on a pair that says "25", but I think they are too big for her - I saw a pair of magic dancing shoes yesterday, which are pink and sparkly all over that we will go and get tomorrow afternoon), a joy, intelligent, funny, loves her daddy very much, and just wonders at me. The nannies have prepared her well for her new life - she all ready calls us mama and baba, anmei ma which I believe means we are hers... we certainly are!

I am in seventh heaven... and DH is fast asleep :o)