Gotcha Day!!!

We were so excited today we could hardly stand it. After breakfast we met with our guide, Amy & she told us all of the paperwork & what toys, etc. to bring with us to meet Kai. That was at 10:30 a. m. then we had to wait until 2:00 to actually go to Civil Affairs to get her.




We went with 4 other families whose children were also from this Province, but she was the only one from Dongguan. The room was VERY crowded (one of the largest groups ever, we were told, 38 families getting their children). We had only been there a few minutes & they called our name & Kai's nanny (or a yi as she says) brought her out to us. She screamed bloody murder when I took her from her nanny, then about 30 seconds later she was fine. We then gave our donation, gifts for the nannies & gifts for the orphanage & we were finished. Her a yi came over to tell her bye & Kai wouldn't come back to either of us. Kendall pulled her away while she was throwing a kicking screaming fit! Thank goodness for banana puffs because in a few seconds she was calmed back down & eating as fast as she could!




She is MUCH smaller than we expected. They said they guessed her DOB...& we think they were definitely off a few months. She is tiny & much more baby than toddler.




She wanted to play so bad when we got to the room, but she had missed her afternoon nap & she was so tired. We decided to give her a bath, feed her a bottle & see if she would go to sleep...she was out cold by 7:30. Then we fed ourselves room service & were also in bed by 8:30.

Guangzhou

We arrived at our hotel in Guangzhou at 11:00 p.m. Saturday night (10:00 a.m. EST) and upon checking in immediately ordered room service...a hamburger for each of us. The flight was long, approximately 16 hours, but the bus ride from Hong Kong airport to Guangzhou seemed just as long, with 2 stops at border stations for immigration and customs checks it took almost 3 hours. Our room is nice and was already set up for Kai with a crib and a baby gift basket. We crashed around 1:00 a.m after unpacking and showering. We now completely understand why you aren't supposed to drink the water, it's yellow and almost looks muddy.

Today is Sunday & we actually woke up ready to explore & aren't that jet lagged. We got up this morning & went to breakfast...noodles, rice, spring rolls & bacon...great combination! After breakfast we went to Starbucks & I ordered my first Iced Venti Skinny Vanilla Latte, it was pretty close to home.

After Starbucks we headed in our first cab ride to a store that was supposed to be their Walmart. It was so strange not being able to read ANY labels & there was an entire aisle devoted to Cup Noodles...we did however recognize the red cans we were in search of & bought a case of Coca-Cola! We also found Kai some great DVD's & a toy phone that speaks Mandarin.

Tonight we went to Shamain Island & had dinner at an Italian restaurant & then took a cab back to the hotel. Cab rides are a bit more scary than in NYC...we were within inches of our life tonight & we were sure we were going to be in a wreck, thank goodness for good brakes!

We got back to the hotel & decided after that cab ride we needed a nightcap to calm our nerves. We went to the lobby lounge & guess what was on the menu...SOL...we had a drink closed our eyes and dreamed of being in Mexico! We are back in our room and just got a call from our guide, Amy. She told us what bank we needed to go to in the morning to exchange our money to 41,000 Yuan & then she will meet with us at 10:30 tomorrow (Monday) morning to give us all the details. Then Amy will go with us to get our sweet girl around 2:00!!!!!

We are SO EXCITED I don't know how we'll sleep at all tonight!

Kai, Here we come!!!

It's been a LONG time coming but we are finally going to get our sweet girl! We leave in 2 days...Friday morning, December 4th. We will fly RDU to JFK, JFK to Hong Kong and then find our way on the tain or bus for 3 more hours to Guangzhou. We will be back home on December 21st, just in time for Santa to come see Kai for the first time!

We Received Kai's Finding Ad

We received Kai's "finding ad" today from the Southern Farmer's Daily newspaper in China. A finding ad is an advertisement the orphanages in China are required to run in the provincial newspaper for each child that is found or brought to their orphanage. These ads contain information about where and when the children were found and which orphanage is caring for them. These ads also include photographs and are usually the earliest available pictures of the children. Below is a picture of Kai's "finding ad" as well as the translated description.

Published September 11th, 2008 in the Southern Farmer's Daily it was the 1043rd picture ad for 2008.

Translation--

Ad # 1043

Li Yun

A girl

On May 8, 2008 she was found by the roadside across the street from the Donghua Hospital in Dongcheng district, Dongguan City.

She was about five months old when found

Claim unit: Dongguan City Children Welfare Institute

Preparing For Baby?

I guess Tucker is trying to prepare us for a 2-year old roaming the house with her toys. We walked into the bedroom tonight to find this. I'm not sure which toy he was looking for but I guess he found it. The toy basket is over in the right corner...virtually empty now.
Merry Christmas???

New Pictures and Information On Kai

This week we received some updated pictures and general information on Kai. After review of the current measurements the doctor says all seems well except her weight is approximately 5% lighter than average, sometimes typical of institutionalized children. We'll put some weight on her once she arrives.

We were able to send off some general questions to the orphanage to find out more about Kai. Her favorite foods are milk formula, soft rice and crackers. She sleeps alone in her crib with a small towel (seen in some previous pictures). She likes to be picked up and played with, which purportedly makes her laugh and smile. We hope this is true because we have yet to receive a picture where she doesn't look sad or frustrated, and I'm sure she is going to get picked up and played with more than she has ever before.

Her updated measurements are 30" tall and 18 pounds. She wears approximately a size 5 shoe and has 12 teeth.

(our favorite picture)

Showering Kai With Gifts

Sunday we had our first adoption celebration at Red Bowl Asian Bistro. Everything was so beautiful & the food was delicious. The only problem was that the time flew by & I didn't get to spend as much time with everyone as I had wished!

The cake was so thoughtful. It was lemon (my favorite) & had Kai's name written in Chinese lettering.

As you can see Kai was showered with so many gifts. This tiny little girl, so far away, has no idea what has been going on here to get ready for her & how loved she already is! We can't wait to get her home to use everything! She got so many books, so bedtime is all set now! And, her carseat & stroller have a cup holder (perfect for her iced DECAF skinny vanilla lates).

The gifts were all so sweet & thoughtful & if I weren't so medicated I would have cried. These two books were given to Kai by Scott & Sam Maillet. They picked out which books used to be their favorites & wrote a personal note to Kai along with their pictures. I think she will love reading these & one day realizing how much everyone loved her before she was ever here.