Lei Lei - Finally!

It's Monday evening in Chongqing and we finally got our baby girl today! She's beautiful, healthy, and quite terrified of Mom right now. Christopher and I flew into Chongqing yesterday afternoon. Our group of seven couples, including us, met at 10am this morning to begin our process. We filled out forms for the Adoption Center here (Civil Affairs office). Then, at 1:50, we all boarded our bus to the office. It was a very surreal few hours. We went into a very nice, large office space. There were a number of people there, as well as several babies in walkers, scooting around. I was convinced that they were our babies, but our guide told us that we were early and thought they were for other families. Soon enough, though, they told us that they would call our name and bring our baby to us. We were close to the last. It all went very fast. Lei Lei was placed in my arms. She was quite calm, although I wasn't. It was such an emotional experience, not only finally having our baby in our arms, but watching six other couples becomes families with their daughters. Some of the babies were crying. All looked wonderful. Very healthy, strong babies. I held her for a while and then gave Christopher his turn. Big mistake. She hasn't let me touch her since! She snuggled right in with Daddy and decided that is where she wanted to stay. We got our offical picture taken and put our fingerprints on our adoption document. Then, we all stayed around for about an hour, enjoying these first moments together.

Once we got back to the hotel, Lei Lei wanted nothing to do with me. She would play and babble with Christopher. As soon as she saw me, she would pull her shirt up, trying to cover her face, and would start crying. She would only stop once I left the room! The same continued through dinner. Right now, Christopher is upstairs, putting her to bed. Maybe tomorrow. Having said that, she really is a sweet, sweet baby. She watches everyone and everything, but is rather calm. She already loves her Daddy and wants him to play with her, feed her, and snuggle. She is probably the biggest baby of the group. At almost 11 months, she weighs 22 lbs.!

I'm really trying to figure out how to upload a picture here at the hotel. The operating system is in Chinese, making for a few challenges. After I post this, I'll keep playing around to see what I can do. I can't wait for her friends and family to meet her. - Jean