Gotcha Day!

It’s official! My purse has turned into a diaper bag! If you want to see pictures and video of Jenna first check out the slide show and video clip at the bottom…I’ll wait to tell you more.

Okay, now that you are back. The day started out with a visit to the local Walmart…I’m not kidding. Walmart is in Nanning and they even have the Parent’s Choice brands here like at home. We purchased diapers, shoes, and various other odds and ends that we needed for Jenna’s arrival. We then went to the food section of Walmart and browsed through the food items…some of them were different some of them were the same. For example, live fish swimming in tanks and mounds of mooncakes in small packages. After shopping we met up with another couple from our group and picked up lunch at KFC (KFC and McDonalds are everywhere in China.) and then took a wild ten minute taxi ride back to the hotel. We thought our taxi driver was about to run over at least 2 to 3 people on the way back to the hotel.

We met up with our guide at 3:00 pm in the lobby of the hotel and piled on the bus. All the parents were full of nervous energy…myself included. We had waited the better part of 2 years for this moment and it was a bit surreal that it was happening now. On the bus our guide, Kelly, told us that the 2 babies from QinZhou orphanage would probably be given to us first…gulp…that’s me! THEN she said that they will start with Min Yong Wei…double gulp…that’s me again! I have to go first! The nerves started jumping then and I couldn’t sit still, then my hands got sweaty, it was a MAJOR pump of adrenaline. When we arrived at the Civil Affairs Office we entered a ceremonial room with a podium and a bunch of flags. There was also a sign that said, “No Video.” Uhm…everyone took video and we kinda’ ignored the sign. Oh well. All the babies were in the hallway right outside of the room and we could hear many of them crying. I saw Jenna in a woman’s arms (it turned out to be the Orphanage Director) and I about had a stroke on the spot. The babies in our group came from 2 different orphanages in this province and the Orphanage Directors were introduced. Then THE MOMENT came…”Min Yong Wei…who has Min Yong Wei?”…we numbly stepped forward and Jenna was handed to us. She didn’t cry at all. She just looked at me…stared in fact. I was so proud of how brave she was. We moved to the back of the room and she did alright for awhile until the other children were placed. All the crying eventually got to her and she started screaming too. The good thing was that we could distract her pretty easy and at one point I almost got her to go to sleep by rocking her and singing softly too her. But no, she panicked and screamed at the top of her lungs. We waited around to talk to the nannies, get important packages of formula and our cameras we sent (all 4 of them, long story, apparently both our packages arrived) and then piled back on the bus. Jenna fell asleep on the bus, like most babies the rocking motion of a moving vehicle did her in. She continued to sleep for at least 45 minutes. After her short nap we had to wake her up to get our official family photograph taken for the Civil Affairs Office. We tried to be first in line, because when we are around crying babies, she cries.

She is asleep for the night now...snoring like our Jacob and Julia did at this age. We were able to feed her a little bit of teething cookies, congee, and a small amount of formula before bed. She has been traumatized today so we are impressed with how she has handled it all. She’s a real trooper. Tomorrow is another day and we hope she will continue to improve…I’m sure she will. My arms hurt and I’m tired, it’s hard work remembering how to mother a 1 year old!

We have a long morning tomorrow at the Civil Affairs office with our court proceedings and the final Chinese adoption paperwork. More to follow later…