Introducing Mei Mei!

Oh, what a morning we have had! I woke to nervous butterflies and they've been moshing in my tummy like there's a thrash metal concert going on in there ever since. I think I was more nervous this time because I know so much more about the process and the "bigness" of what we are doing. The honor and the privilege of making this child our own carries with it so much responsibility and I spent most of the trip to the orphanage praying and asking God for favor in the coming hours.

But I know none of you are here to talk about that.... seriously. How rude of me to wax philosophical when all you want to see is Little Miss herself. Without further ado, here's the pictures we captured of the morning together. Please bear with us, the first few pictures are to help us document her story for our family. Not nearly enough of her cuteness, I know, but important to capturing the importance of this day.

 The entry to the orphanage campus

 "Welcome to the Children's Welfare Institute"

Grand front entry to the orphanage facility

The outdoor play yard for the children

The entry way was beautiful and bright and cheerful.

She cried for quite a while upon being handed to me. 

She has a few Chinese words but they said it's mostly baby

babble that she kept repeating.

When they told her "This is your momma,"

she vehemently shook her head as if to say

"NO! This is some crazy white lady!"

She really wanted nothing to do with her new Baba

for the first few hours.

This is the director. Mei Mei seemed quite happy in her arms

and kept arching away from me to get back to her.

We climbed in to the van to head off to the Civil Affairs offices

and she wouldn't make eye contact with either of us

at first. But we took out an old favorite toy of Li'l Empress'

that plays classical music and she was quite happily

distracted by it for most of trip,

even kicking her little foot in time to the tunes!

She quite enjoyed sitting on Miss Grace's lap and got

a huge kick out of seeing her face on the adoption certificate.

In fact, it's the first smile I got to see!

She was NOT a fan of the ink on her hands though. 

And LESS so of the wipe we used to clean her up!

Loving all that hair! It looks as if it was recently cut

but it seems nice and healthy and thick. And very soft!

So we're back at the hotel now. She is grieving, but in spurts. She had a really hard time when Miss Grace and Mr. Dion left us alone for the afternoon. But some yogurt snacks and the toys on the bed seem to have remedied that for now, at least. We still have to tackle diaper time but we're waiting till she feels more comfortable. Taking off her hat and coat was pretty traumatic for her so we're being patient and letting her set the pace. It's definitely a big difference from our time with Li'l Empress, but Mei Mei is much older than she was so we expected it to be noticeably different. The rest of the day is "down time" for us to acclimate, rest, and allow trust to begin to build.

Your prayers and good wishes are so appreciated. If you could specifically pray for Mei Mei's health, we'd be grateful. Seems that she recently finished treatment for a bout of pnuemonia and she still  has a bit of a rattle-y sound in her chest. She's not laboring to breathe nor does her nose seem stuffy at all. But it was noted by both the director and the care-giver that she is a little more fragile than normal. She's tiny as it is, so we are asking for quick healing and recovery!

We'll post again later today when she's more relaxed and hopefully you'll get to see her beautiful smile. She isn't giving them out too easily just yet but from what we've seen, they are totally worth waiting for!!!!

Love to you all at the Gang's house. We miss you all so much but we are so proud of you for your support and cooperation. Hugs and kisses to you all from Momma and Daddy!