Monday,
November 3, 2008
WE HAVE HER!
We got to the orphanage and there were lots of kids out in
the courtyard playing. I tried to take as many pictures as
I could in case any Tianjin families might recognize their
children. We were taken into a room to wait for her and
she came in holding the orphanage director’s hand. She
didn’t really show any response at all to us, she just
seemed to be in shock and stared straight ahead. Our guide
spoke to her in Chinese and asked her to come with us and
we were whisked away in a van to check into our hotel.
On the way over she just stared straight ahead and
wouldn’t look at the guide or respond when she was spoken
to. She looked sad and confused but she never cried or
whimpered, just sat there bravely and rode away from all
she’d ever known.
When we arrived at the hotel we sat her in a large throne
in the lobby so that we could sign papers and check in.
She became fascinated with Jamie’s camera and began
looking at the pictures on it and saying “Mama and BaBa” .
We got her first smile when she realized that the camera
would flash and take a picture when she pressed the
button. After that she took pictures of everyone in the
lobby and quickly learned how to review the pictures by
pressing the camera button.
After getting into the room it was less than 20 minutes
before she began playing with us and acting silly. Since
then she has been wide open, non stop. She giggles at
everything and loves to play and act silly. The trick will
be to calm her down long enough to take a nap. She began
calling us Mama and Baba almost immediately and is
constantly demanding our attention by calling our names.
If I tell her no she will go to Jamie and say BABA over
and over to get his attention. Of course he is eating it
up, we were both afraid she may be shy around men and not
bond with him as quickly but that seems to not be the
case. If anything, she seeks him out more because he makes
her laugh, and she is constantly laughing and playing.
She
will repeat what we say in English and is already
following simple directions like “give the ball to Baba”
and “go get your cup”. She seems to have a few word of
English she uses spontaneously, such as here, yeah, and
cup. I wonder if someone may have taught them to her at
some point, surely she didn’t pick them up that quickly
from us. But she is definitely a fast learner, she will
watch us do something once and imitate it perfectly; we
will certainly have to watch what we do from now on! She
is into everything and we have some serious babyproofing
to do when we get home.
Holt is very excited to be a big brother and keeps talking
about how cute she is but I think he is feeling a little
left out since she mainly interacts with us and won’t have
much to do with him yet.
She is very possessive of the few belongings she brought
with her and I think she is afraid he is going to take
them. She moves them around the room wherever she goes to
make sure no one will get them. I haven’t been able to
convince her to part with some of the clothes she was
wearing even though she is wearing about 4 layers and a
coat and shoes. We’ll try again when she is more
comfortable, I guess. Well that’s all for now, I know all
you care about is the pictures anyway!
|
Can't go wrong with M&Ms
Checking out her new big brother
Starting to warm up
No more monkeys jumpin' on the bed!
Daddy, Mei Mei and Holt
Looking sad on the ride to the hotel |
