GOTCHA DAY!!!

I have only been sleeping 3-4 hours every night since we arrived, so one of the other mothers traveling in our group gave me a magic pill last night. Apparently, it's for nausea, but it did the trick. I slept nearly 8 hours! Thankfully, I was well rested (finally) when we woke this special morning. We left the hotel at 9:30 a.m. and headed to the Civil Affairs office to get our children. One by one, the five children arrived with their orphanage director and caregiver. Mia, as we suspected, was last to arrive as they had a five hour drive. I can't begin to describe the emotions I felt as I was about to meet our baby girl. I was shaking with excitement. When I first saw her, I was amazed by how tiny she was. She is a petite little thing. The pictures make her look so much bigger than she really is. I could tell she was tiny even through the layers of bulky clothing she was wearing. Her caregiver was wonderful, which was why Mia didn't want to let go of her. She held tightly to her caregiver, cried big tears and wailed. Three of the five children were crying, but even thought Mia is the youngest of the group, she just may have the loudest cry.

We were very pleasantly surprised to find out that Mia was part of a Half the Sky Foundation project, therefore she has gotten a lot of extra, individual attention. We were given a journal that tracks her every few weeks since she was one month old. There are tons of pictures of her in it and also foot and hand prints from when she was one month and 7 months old. What an amazing gift they have given to us!!! We will need to have it translated when we return home, but having this is priceless.

We have another daddy's girl with Mia. Unfortunately, I had the task of pulling her away from her caregiver. I think I have been pegged as the "big meany" by a 13-month old. You'll notice that Nolan is holding Mia in most of the pictures. She is most comfortable with him at this point. She and I went for long walks today alone through the hotel to help with the bonding. She likes it when I sing to her. I sang her to sleep for nap time and sang her to sleep tonight at bedtime. (The first thing we'll do when we get home is check her hearing! ha ha)

She is a beautiful angel, just like her Chinese name, An Qi (pronounced An Chee), means angel. She is gorgeous with beautiful, petite features. She gets many stares, smiles and "she's pretty" from the Chinese in the lobby. She did not want to eat her a.m. snack, her midday bottle or afternoon snack. We were getting concerned, but her appetite came back full force at dinner. She ate Cheerios, rice with corn and ham and congee (a plain, bland, white watery rice-like food), and fruit for dessert. She only let Nolan feed her, but I was able to get two big smiles out of her at dinner. She has a BEAUTIFUL smile!!! We just need to give her some time and we are confident we will see it quite often.