Monday, December 25, 2006
JIA DAY!

“Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace on whom His favor rests.” -Luke 2:14

Merry Christmas to All!

I am sorry I am a day late. We were so overwhelmed by the day, and I was the first one to pass out. Hard to believe that from Lesa the night owl.

The day started out with a bizarre breakfast buffet here at the East Lake Hotel. We were the only ones there in this very formal dinning room with about 8 people waiting on us, and staring at us. The buffet included something called Intestine Salad, which we did not try, a bunch of stuff that we wouldn’t think of eating for breakfast, like spicy noodles, dim sum and pork fried rice. Anna and I did try something called Peculiar Dumplings, they were very good, but we have no idea what was in them.

At around 9:30 we left the hotel and took a harrowing drive through the city to a government office to meet Hui-Hui (Jia-Li). It was very fast, we walked into a room and there she was! She was all dressed up in a precious little orange snowsuit with white trim; she was gorgeous and so much tinier than we ever thought. She had her little pink lucky dot on her forehead and was with a lady from her orphanage, which is about 2 hours away, and also the Director of her SWI. They were very kind and presented us with a photo album of Hui that included pictures of her on the day she was found. They had written notes about Hui and about Daye City.

We only had to sign one paper as they give you what is called a 24-hour Harmonious Period in which you can change your mind and tell them you don’t want the child. Can you imagine such a thing???

When we took her out of the room she started screaming at the top of her lungs and was very angry. It was all I could do to hold on to her. In the car she sat on the floor with her hood up and wouldn’t let me touch her, I sang her a song and she calmed down a little.

Jia, Katie and I spent the rest of the day in the room with short trips to the hall and the basement swimming pool. Every time you walk out the door there are 2 people there to check on you. Drew and Anna braved the streets again to go to the Carre-Four to get some supplies. They didn’t have a lot of luck but were able to buy some formula to donate to Jia’s orphanage and some snacks.

We had room service again. When Drew called he asked for white rice and they replied “for the baby?” when he said yes, they sent up a bowl of congee which is a soupy rice mixture.

Right after dinner we started dropping off to sleep. We ended up with Katie, Jia and me in one bed and Anna and Dad in another (even though there were two more beds in the other room).

It was truly an amazing day. Jia-Li has some sad moments, but she has been having a lot of fun eating veggie puffs, drinking Evian, chasing the beach ball and learning how to say “ohh,laa,laa” . Each of the girls got one Christmas present, they were identical silver cross necklaces and Jia was very pleased that she got the same thing as the big girls.

She has had a few moments of sadness, and I am not looking forward to taking her back to the office to finalize the papers, but soon this will be over and she will realize how much we all love her.

Anna and Katie are in heaven, they are just totally in love with her already.

Today we would like to send our love out to all our wonderful nieces and nephews—Christy, Lav, Gabbi, Piph, Mitchell, Jake and Shane. We love you guys!