WORTH THE WAIT!!!

We made it up to the 13th floor conference room of our hotel at about 4:30pm as instructed and were told that the babies had been delayed 15-30 minutes.  Not 5 minutes later, we heard crying in the halls.  I grabbed the camera and ran for it but had to really search for Meili.  She was in the middle of the crowd wearing a cute little lavender dress.  The nanny that was holding her could tell that I had spotted my baby and tried to be discreet about moving to the front so we could get a pic.  We were the first family to be called so it all seemed like a frantic mess but before we knew it, I was holding our girl!

 

She didn't cry at first and came to me quite easily but made up for it later.  She is a double fisted thumb sucker-she'll switch from one thumb to the next over and over again.  If one arm is covered in a blanket or tucked behind me while I'm holding her, she'll get ticked so I have to hold her upright instead of in a cradle position.  She is very petite.  We changed her diaper and fed her a bottle but have not yet changed her clothes.  She's swimming in the size three diapers we brought and I'm guessing that she will be swimming in the size 12 months clothes we brought as well.  I'm thinking that she is in a 6-9 months size at most.  We haven't weighed her yet but we're sure the 19-20 pound reports were quite exaggerated.

 

Matt was able to hold her and rocked her to sleep. He also got the bottle right on the first try.  He's still a pro!  Taylor and Audrey are doing great. They've been the camera crew, caddies and designated play patrol.  No smiles yet.  We definitely have one scared little girl on our hands but we're sure that things will get better each day.

 

Meili is a little sick but nothing to be concerned about.  She has two IV marks (one in each hand) and is coughing and running a slight fever.  Her chest sometimes rattles when she breathes but not all of the time. She came to us with a bag with 4 different kinds of medicines.  One we recognize as the Chinese version of Baby Tylenol.  The other three are 'ancient Chinese secret' and we'll get to play apothecary tomorrow when she wakes up. Our guide came up after the paper work was done tonight to translate the instructions for us.  I asked her why a baby would go to the hospital for a chest cold trying to figure out if she had been much worse and was already on the mend and she explained that there are no private doctors here.  Anybody that wants to see a doctor must go to a hospital to do so and anybody who goes to the hospital gets an IV.  Anyway, she is eating fine and isn't dehydrated at all so we're not too concerned.  I'm sure that the orphanage director wanted to make sure that she had received the best care possible before handing her over to us. 

 

I'll update more as I'm able.  We're completely exhausted but head over heels in love with this girl!!!   Here are some pics.