Here She Comes

Brent and Lillian are crashed out together, so Kari took a little side trip to the corner grocer near the Nanjing Central Hotel and is now typing up this entry. It's amazing they both can sleep with all the racket outside -- traffic and construction mostly. But it's been a big day, and I am feeling pretty bleary-eyed myself.

Brent and I woke up earlier than we needed to this morning to get around for the flight from Beijing to Nanjing. More precisely, Brent did not really need to wake up, because he really didn't sleep. (He probably got about an hour, so a nap should do him some good.)

The flight was fine -- very much like a US domestic flight. It arrived in time, but by the time the three families rounded up our luggage, got on the bus, took a 45-minute trip to our hotel, and checked in, we didn't have much more than 40 minutes to eat and get ready to go to the Civil Affairs office.

When we arrived at the office, there were several other families from other agencies already there with their children. In fact, the other two girls in our group were there already, just waiting for their new families to arrive. I think Brent and I teared up the most when we saw our new friends meet their daughters. We had time to get a little footage of them before the director of Lillian's CWI arrived with her.

She was very apprehensive at first, and sobbed when she was handed to Brent. But she took to us, especially after we broke out the Fruity Cheerios. Her first action with the Cheerios was to feed one to Brent. We had great fun for the rest of our time at the office feeding and being fed Cheerios.

We were able to ask a full slate of questions about Lillian's routines, likes and dislikes, and general environment, because both the director of the CWI and one of the staff members were there. They also presented us with a treasure -- a memory book kept by her foster grandmother through the Half the Sky Foundation. It included early photos of her -- from just after she was brought to the CWI, to more recent photos of her in the CWI toddler classroom. They also presented us with wooden combs for Lillian, as Changzhou is known for elaborately painted wooden combs.

When we got back to the hotel, she was very agitated about her diaper, even though it didn't appear to be wet or soiled, so we changed it. She still seemed agitated, like she was trying to tell us something, so we tried putting her on the toilet (because we were told she can use a training potty). When that didn't do the trick (she hated it), pullups and introducing a new toy seemed to satisfy her. I just hope she doesn't end up constipated because we don't know exactly what she's trying to tell us (that's a common issue with kids who haven't been in diapers before, but she has been in diapers since she first came to the CWI).

I'll post more photos later, but this is a start!