Day 2

Day 2

Perrin and i were up long before dawn. 2am and then at 4am we gave up and had breakfast of the Cheerios we had brought for the baby.  Neal had stayed up later the night before by going out for a foot massage. He is so happy to back in the world of 8$ foot massages!

At 2pm we meet up with Richard, Lana (the adoptive mom) and her mom Carol in the hotel lobby. After a 15 minute car ride we arrived at a street filled with small store front businesses selling pipes and other metal objects. There was even sodering. But, around the corner was the Chinese Cultural Affairs building where adoptive families meet up with their new children. When we arrived there were a few other couples with new kids. But, much more exciting was the news that OUR girls had arrived and were waiting for us! After reviewing both our passports, a woman walked out carrying a baby girl. I just stared -- she was not immediately recognizable as the baby from the photos and i wasn't sure what I was supposed to do. And then Richard gave me a push and said, "Go get your baby!".

It was a sureal experience to hold a new baby surrounded by Neal and Perrin and know that this was going to be part of our new family. Lulu came into my arms pretty easily, but as soon as her nanny walked away she started to cry. She was quickly distracted by a plastic keys (circa 1970) that we had brought with. She looked to be in good condition and her clothes were obviously new. She even smelled nice! We were prepared for the worst, but the girls looked well taken care of and the nannies seemed to truly care about them.

We had made a long list of questions we wanted to ask, but were so overwhelmed looking at our new daughter we would have forgotten if Richard hadn't cued us. The Orphanage director took the lead in giving us information.

He told us that both our girls were healthy and happy and easy going. And, then he paused and pointed at Lulu and said, "but she has a good strong temper, ha ha". Um, say what? Lulu just gave me a blank look. And then he continued, "don't give her anything hard to hold in case she throws it, ha ha". I have to admit I was a little put off. But, our thoughts had always been that no matter what were given, she was ours and we would handle any issues that might come up. Bride of Chucky? We could handle it. <Just a quick disclosure -- 3 days in and we know what he means by temper, but it is more that she stands up for herself and has strong opinions>

We were given a print-out of the girls schedules and then the nannies told us that both girls (Lulu and Lana's daughter Ansley) were great friends and would crawl in to each others cribs.  We feel so lucky to know another family with a girl who was friend's with Lulu from the start. Lana lives in Alabama, but we will stay in touch.

Lulu cried on the car ride home, but overall the rest of the day was uneventful. She ate a little from her bottle (formula and cereral we had brought from home along with a bottle that had a hole cut in to the nipple -- I had done my research on what to start out with for these babies!) and fussed a little. At 6pm I went with Richard to look at other hotel rooms (we ended up switching 3 times). When I got back to the room 30 minutes later, Lulu was asleep on Neal's lap still wearing her orphanage outfit. We moved her in to her crib and that is the last we heard from her for the night.