She is officially ours :) !!!!!! - Day 3 in China

Chris and Lily are napping and Mia is watching a movie so I finally have some time to gather my thoughts and post some more details of the last couple of days.

We arrived at the hotel yesterday afternoon and two hours later Lily was bought to our room. I have to tell you that my first impression when I saw her was a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Not because I had any feelings of regret, or that we had made the wrong decision, it was actually the opposite. For both Chris and I the minute we laid eyes on her it was only confirmed in our hearts that she was ours. It was just a feeling of concern - she looked so frail and her color so grey, it doesn't help that her hair is shaved to her head :(. We were prepared for her condition but she looked worse than her pictures. I know for Chris his daddy heart just wanted to scoop her up and make her all better. How we wished we could be back home that minute and in the doctors office.

After talking to the orphanage director they explained that she was very exhausted as they had, had an eight hour drive to get to us. They presented us with a book as a gift and it had pictures of her just taken a few days ago where she looked a lot better. This was very encouraging to see. This all being said I would be lying if I didn't say I have concern about how the twenty hour trip home will effect her little body - please pray for this.

After the director and nanny left our guide Jessica (who is amazing) took us for a walk to get baby supplies, it seems nothing I have fits her. Then we had to go get her passport picture taken. She hated it, so it took forever to get a shot with her eyes open. We have discovered she does not like her picture taken (unlike her sister). Every time the camera comes out her arm goes over her face. We are having to sneak shots of her when she is not looking. We settled into the hotel for the evening so we could skype family and some friends back home - it was wonderful to see and talk to everyone. Lily played on the bed and began to look a little better. We even saw a smile, she held her own bottle(much to Mia's disappointment), she rolls around and grabs for her toys. Her color gets worse when she crys. She is long but very skinny, her arms and legs are tiny. We are taking things slow with her, giving her space. Except for going to the doctors she has never been out of the orphanage, not even outside to play, they were very concerned about her condition so she was very protected.

We fell in bed last night exhausted. So many emotions. This has been very different from our experience with Mia. We are taking our ques from Lily I want to hold and hug her but I can see how it stresses her. Our hearts are overjoyed to have her and we have a lifetime to smother her with hugs and kisses.

Mia is being an amazing big sister. Lays on the bed with her, plays with her and trys to feed her :).

So that was yesterday.

Today Lily officially became ours :). We went to the civil affairs office, and signed all the papers, were fingerprinted, and she became ours.

That took all morning and now we are relaxing in the hotel for the rest of the day. Because of Lily's physical condition we won't do lots of sightseeing. We will take things at a slower pace, and do some short trips out.

At the appointment we got a lot of time to hold her and love on her, she did well and responded to us comforting her when she started to stress. We are learning her coping mechanisms, and can see some typical behaviours that institutionalized children have in order to comfort themselves. She rocks herself to sleep - breaks my heart to think she didn't have anyone to rock her to sleep. We know the nannies loved her, they just have a lot of children to take care of.

Here are some pictures of the last two days. I will post all our pictures on facebook.




Our first moments with Lily







Mia could not wait to feed her




Exhausted




Playing






She is ours - we had to put our fingerprint on about 8 documents










Lily's footprint (I know her color looks awful in this picture) whenever she is stressed she covers her face.




Mia's fingerprint :)




There was one other family adopting plus the orphanage dircetor and nanny





Proud daddy




Playing back at the hotel