The details...

Ok- finally, some of the wonderful details from our last 24 hours. I do believe this has been the longest 24 hours of my life. Time is funny like that.

Yesterday we arrived at the Civil Affairs Office of Chengdu at approximately 1:45 pm. As you know by now, we are here with 3 other couples. We saw the bus pull up outside our window, and we had the pleasure of watching each of the four nannies step off the bus with the babies. First Kate... then Alia... and then our Gwen... escorted by her nanny (we assume she was her nanny), a very tall and beautiful young Chinese woman. She walked in with her, holding her hand and talking to her. Gwen had on the famous "squeaker shoes" that we have heard so much about. Gwen and her nanny did a little dance, and hopped around a little, squeaking away. Lynne and I both knelt down low to be right at eye level with Gwen. We simply looked at her for a few minutes as she played with her nanny. Then her nanny looked at us as if to say, she is yours now, and she stood back out of the way. Lynne picked her up and held her. Gwen looked at us and studied us. She did not cry, but was very intent as she looked at us amidst all the commotion with the other babies and their nannies and new parents. Gwen's nanny then stepped outside and watched us through the window. I could see her smiling, yet she seemed a bit sad. Lynne cuddled Gwen and we talked to her.

Now it's Lynne~

We got out the Winnie the Pooh puppet that we brought... you probably saw it in the pictures we sent. She really reponded to it, having us hide it behind our backs and then pop out again. She liked to bop in on the head. :-) She also had fun with a little noisemaking toy. We had time to play with her as each family got a turn to speak with the orphange representative, who turned out to be like a manager of the nannies who care for the girls. She spoke only Chinese, of course, so our Children's Hope guide translated. We didn't find out much new information, but that she has not been potty trained at all, is a good sleeper, and is comforted by food! Oh, and also that she has a bath and a bottle before bed, and a bottle in the morning. Scott videoed much of this conversation. It was so amazing as we waited for the other famililes how she warmed up to us. She held her arms out to me to be hugged, smiled and laughed. It was such a gift, the way she was able to respond. The other little girl her age cried a long time. We left the office after about an hour, glad to be taking her back to our own room.

When we got back we peeled off a few of her layers... one top was the heavy quilted corderoy pink jacket and pants you saw her wearing in the picture. Next was a knitted orange and white sweater, also pretty heavy. She had green knitted split pants on, too. The bottom layer was a long sleeve cotton shirt and pants. She started to cry hard when we took off the sweater layer, and we offered her a bottle with watered down juice. She holds it with one hand on the bottom of the bottle. She fell asleep in my arms then after drinking only about a quarter of it, and slept until we woke her for dinner about an hour and a half later.

Scott again -
We woke her and played with her a bit and then decided it was bath time. She and Lynne got into the bathtub together and she enjoyed playing with several of her new favorite toys in the tub. We washed her and it appears that she definitely enjoys her bathtime. There is something intimate about a kids bath and new clothes and the wonderful fragrance of hair after a good shampoo. I guess this was the first of hopefully many new feelings of "she is ours"...

After the bath it was off to the restaurant for dinner. Just the three of us... but boy could we have used Caleb and Seth and Madelyn to help at dinner. Lets just say Gwen is an active little girl. Sitting in a restaurant was a challenge as she was really wanting to play with her toys. In any event, she wore us out pretty good. But we are sure with C, S and M's help, it will be easy to keep her occupied. She ate conji (watery rice) and some noodles for dinner. Seemed to like them.

Back in the room later, she had a bottle and was not real excited to go to her crib awake. So Lynne rocked her until she was asleep and then she went down pretty easily. However, she did cough herself awake once in the night and needed some comfort to get back to sleep.

On Tuesday morning, she needed to be woken up around 8 AM since we were headed to the Civil Affairs Office again for some paperwork. We hustled down to breakfast and she had a boiled egg and some bread, and some more conji. She is a bit of a picky eater, but seems to get enough.

Will write more later. We seem to be challenged for time. Forgot how much work a 20 month old can be.