It gets better...

Once we were in our hotel room, we had toys out for her and the boys tried to play "dolls" with her.  Everything they did she looked at me to see if I was still there and what I thought.  It took about 15 min for her first smile.  Ken was the first one to get it.  From then on there she became a total ham Not kidding!!  She got silly, was smiling, playing with the boys giggling.  We went downstairs for a quick bite to eat, she woofed down an entire plate of food and was cheery and happy the entire time.  She sat on all of our laps and seemed really happy. She said all of our names gege Ethan, gege Dylan, baba and mama.

We came back to the room where I gave her a shower (she wasn't too sure of that) and we snuggled in bed.  At one point she fell asleep and tears stated coming out of her eyes - ugghh.  We just keep tell her we love her (of course in Mandarin). She woke up and cried for about 10 min that she wanted to go home.  She is now sound asleep like a little angle.  

This was truly the most difficult and emotional day of my life.  Every emotion has come to the surface today - we are happy, scared, still nervous and anxious and absolutely exhausted BUT she is a beautiful, happy little girl that we are falling in love with!  Everytime I sneak over to look at her I start crying - she is perfect! (and very teeny tiny too)

Meeting Lily

After we went to the orphanage we waited in a meeting room. We signed papers both with ink and we were also fingerprinted to authenticate our signatures. We were all STRESSED!! The boys werew quiet with wide eyes, Ken wasn't breathing and I went between the giggles and crying.  The lady from the orphanage then told us she was going to get her and we saw them walking down the stairs together and I lost it.

As soon as Lily saw us she started crying - a lot. She was crying for her Nai nai (her nanny) and said she wanted to go back home. She sobbed.  We clutched to the little poodle we gave her in her care package and wouldn't let go.  We just kept saying I am your mama, dada, brother over and over again and she just kept on crying. We were all crying at some point or another. 

Our guide, then carried her to the car for us while she mourned most of the way home.  She eventually came to sit on my lap still crying.  About 5 min from the hotel she stopped crying and clung to me with all her might.

   Just looking at these pictures makes me cry. She broke our hearts and just cried her eyes out. Ken just looked at me and "what did we do?" and I thought to myself "I have no idea!" This poor baby girl is tearing my heart in two.

Nothing in the world can prepare to meet your 3 year old daughter in her orphanage......

Is was about a 45 minute drive to the orphanage - we had to drive through many poorer areas of Beijing where both Ken and I were trying not to let our emotions get the better of us. We finally found her orphanage which was a beautiful large new building - well kept, clean, very child friendly.  We both breathed a little easier.

It took us awhile to get converters for the laptop and things were working a little slower yesterday including me:)  Here are just a couple of random shots from yesterday.  

We are now waiting - trying to keep busy.  I am blogging, Ken is playing with the video camera and the boys are watching a movie.   We have 1 1/2 hours until we meet our little girl. I switch between huge butterflies and my eyes welling up with tears. Anytime anyone from our group bumps into us and asks us I start to get all teary eyed.  Everyone else in our group is leaving tomorrow morning (5:00 a.m.) to fly to their province to meet up with their daughters.  We are the lucky ones that get to remain in Beijing and meet Lily today.  

We went for a walk this morning - since the day started at 6:00. Breakfast was an interesting affair - a full buffet style breakfast, lunch and supper all served for breakfast.  The toast was GREAT :) We are not so adventurous yet as the aromas are much different than what we are used to.  On our walk we checked our some cool shops, took come pictures and guess what  - went to McDonald's again for ice cream.  

We will post when we get back from the orphanage!

It's Sunday morning (5:00)

Ethan and I are wide awake and we can't sleep - I am paniking a little bit.  In a couple of hours we will head out to the orphanage and meet Lily.  I am overwhelmed and not sure what to expect. Yulin met Lily this week and said she was a total chatterbox and was bossing all the other kids around!! ha!  By the time we post tonight hopefully we will have new pictures of Lily!

Soooo,

Here I think I am all prepared, organized, everything is ready. I have all day tomorrow to make a bank appointment, pick up food for Lily, practise our Mandarin saying and get settled in.  We just found out that at 1:00 tomorrow we will get Lily.  WE will be taken to the orphanage where we will meet her, she will then come home with us. We go back on Tuesday to the governement offices to make everything official.  Yulin met her earlier this week and said she was a total chatterbox and was bossing all the little kids around. I cannot even imagine what her personality will be like.  I cannot wait until tomorrow.

WE ARE HERE!!!

We are now in Beijing after a very long flight. Dylan and Ethan slept like champs.  We are currently in the hotel room eating McDonalds - mmm.  It is currently 8:20 p.m. and we are dying to get to bed.  

I cannot upload all of my pictures but I did get one of Starbucks and the Cox's the other couple from Waterloo in our group.