What a day! (Day 3 in China) - October 13

I met my daughter today.

Wow. I never thought I would actually type that sentence. I'm not even sure where to begin, so I guess I should start at the beginning.

We went to breakfast here at the hotel. It is definitely not the Traders Hotel. I am thinking I will live on croissants and watermelon. I'm not sure what the boys will eat. Although they do have a decent omelet station, so maybe we will survive. We sat with a family from Michigan who is adopting a five year old little boy. We also saw the couple from last night and their daughter.

We left the hotel at 9:50 in order to get there by 10:30. When we arrived, we looked around really quick, but didn't see Kate. There were maybe five or six families already there with their children. I was overcome. I started crying, but made myself quit within seconds. I usually can't do this, so praise God. Some children were laughing, some crying, some sleeping. The five year old was there and screaming. Bless his heart. I am eager to see them tomorrow to see how the rest of the day went.

Anyway, I guess Kate was behind someone when we came in, because she was already there. We spotted her within a minute, and we just stood for a minute watching her. Our guide told us to go on and talk to her, so we knelt down. She shied away at first, but when I got out the graham crackers she was a bit more interested in us. She ate one after the other, and when she was bored with those I pulled out the banana puffs. She ate some of them, but was probably pretty full by then. The SWI nannies and director (I'm not sure which was which) were very kind and patient with her as she got used to us. She had a blue fuzzy backpack and a stuffed dog with her. Inside the backpack was the pink blankie we had sent, along with the two cameras, the Pooh bear, and the photo album of us. Tim grabbed the album and started showing it to her. We don't know if she had ever seen it before, because the bear and the blankie smelled like they had been in the cardboard box I sent them in for two months. They were also very clean. Anyway, as Tim flips through the album, Will narrates for them. He shows her Mama, Baba, and Ge Ge (big brothers). Yes, he was saying it in Mandarin. The guide had taught him how on the bus ride.

After a few minutes she was in Tim's lap. We don't remember how she got there, we just kind of noticed there she was, and she was holding on to Tim's thumb. At some point, she decided she liked the video camera feature that flips the screen around so that she could see herself. She played with that for a long time sitting in Tim's lap. When it was time for Tim to go sign the 24 hour agreement, she started crying, so I picked her up. She cried until I gave her back to Tim, and then she decided to stop. She cried when I picked her up for the official family photo, but when I gave her to Tim, she stopped. When we got onto the van, she was nervous, but waved goodbye to the nannies with apprehension on her face. We sat across from each other and played peek a boo. This finally got a laugh out of her. At that point I hadn't even had a smile, much less a laugh. That lasted until I said, "Where is Mama? There she is!" in Mandarin. Then she started bawling again. Oh, my poor baby misses her foster mama and is mad at me because she knows I am not her. Bless her. So I got the boys to come up to my seat, and I would cover them with the blanket, and then take it off. She laughed again.

By the time we got back to the hotel, she was fascinated by the boys. They danced around the room, did prat falls, made funny noises, and whatever else they could think of to make her laugh. It worked big time. She got down off of Tim's lap to play with them, and they had a ball. But anytime I said a word to her she would give me the "And why are you talking again?" glare. (Mom says to get used to it. I gave it to her for years. haha.) If she caught me looking at her, I got it again. She would be in a belly laugh, glance at me and stop dead.

At this point you are probably wondering how I was taking this. Well, my biggest fear was that she would reject both of us. It is perfectly normal to attach to one parent first, and I am perfectly ok with it. So I am so thankful she feels to comfortable with one of us. Really.

Anyway, for lunch she ate about a million Cheerios (hey, it's what she wanted), and drank water with a spoon. She did NOT like the formula we brought. In fact, they said she just drinks water, milk, and soup. When it was naptime, she cried when we changed her diaper, but then she calmed when Tim cuddled with her. I read her a book while the three of us lay down together. She kept her head turned away from me and the book, but she must have been looking at the book out of the corner of her eye, because when I moved it. she turned and looked at me.

At dinner tonight she ate everything we put in front of her except for red peppers. The green peppers were fine, but not red. She loved the noodles, rice, beef, and pork. Afterward, we went to Haagen-Dazs to celebrate our wonderful day. I sat all the way across the table so she could see me but not be afraid. She didn't like the Rasberry Sorbet she tried, but pointed to my chocolate ice cream. I pounced on that idea. I would give her a spoonful, make a funny face, and say, "Mmmmm!" She loved it, and gave me the belly laugh. Yay!

I thought maybe we had turned a corner, but as soon as we got back to the room she wanted me to go away again. Oh well. She is at least tolerating me now. She let me pat her hair earlier. But when she fell and bumped her head, Baba was the only one who could make it better. When it was time for bed, Tim put her in our bed, since that is where she napped. She layed there for awhile, but then she wanted some water with her spoon, and then she crawled into the crib herself and went to sleep. No crying.

Of course, I have left out tons of details. For example, she likes for Baba to sing to her and dance. She thinks it is funny when other people brush their teeth, but she won't let us near hers. She likes to compete with the boys to see who gets to push the elevator buttons. She was scared of the stroller at first, but after a demonstration by Will, she loves it. She likes Ben to read to her. When Ben was in timeout, she was worried about him and went to check on him. She is asleep right now and holding her spoon.

She is beautiful and smart and wonderful and stubborn and independent and so, so brave. She is completely amazing.

By the way, about half of these pics were taken by Ben and Will. Not bad, huh? Move over, Tara D.