I struggle with what to call this post. How are you supposed to summarize what happened in the last 24 hours in a few words?   Molly Kate was sleeping on me yesterday afternoon while Zach blogged so I didn’t get a chance to add my thoughts to the original post so here comes another post about yesterday.

Yesterday, I was so nervous.  I could not eat, I did not sleep the night before, I was an emotional wreck. The hotel we are staying in caters to families that are adopting so you see Chinese children with their new American parents everywhere.  Yesterday morning was no different. While we attempted to eat breakfast I was just overcome with the entire thing. All these kids abandoned and now with moms and dads was fantastic!!  But what about all those other kids? I know we can’t adopt them all but it was staggering to think about.  This sweet precious daughter of mine now has a family and I can’t help but feel that all those other kids deserve the same thing.  While we waited for the hours to tick away, these are the thoughts I could not shake.  2:00 could not come soon enough!

We met Maggie (our amazing guide) in the hotel lobby at 2 and made the 20 minute drive to the Civil Affairs office. It probably wouldn’t take 5 minutes to get there if you could drive straight there but it is like rush hour all day long here.  I don’t think we have ever gone above 30 mph.  Once we arrived at the building, we were taken up to wait for Molly Kate.  While sitting on the couches, I saw two adults walk in with a little girl that was carrying the same baby doll we sent to Molly Kate back in January.  The baby never turned around but I was sure that was my little girl.  The room started filling up pretty fast.  Maggie had told us on the way over there would be about 30 babies adopted that day.  When she says “babies” she means any child 0-14 (you age out of the system at 14).  We hadn’t been sitting there 3 minutes when Maggie called us over and told us it was time to receive our baby.  So quick!  We walked up to this little curtain area and Molly Kate’s two caregivers had her by the finger and started to push her towards me saying, “mama, mama.”  She didn’t really move one way or the other so I picked her up and we were ushered out so that the next family could get their child.  I don’t know what I expected but it was quick!  Once we sat back down with her, Zach went to pay the orphanage donation fee. It was amazing to sit there and witness all of these families receiving their “babies.” Most children did really well.  No big smiles but not many tears. However, there were 2 families that had such a hard time.  Their children screamed the entire time (they were probably around 5-6 years old). The kids kept trying to run away from the parents. It was heartbreaking.   I’m hopeful that today is a better day for them.

We left for the hotel about 20 minutes later.  Once we got in the room, Molly Kate laid her head down on me, started sucking her thumb and went to sleep.  She slept for about an hour while we did paperwork with Maggie.  After her nap, we gave her a bath, changed her clothes, and took her to dinner.  During that entire time, she did not make a single noise (which is normal).  Because of her cleft lip and palate, we are having to experiment with different foods and so far she is doing well! She loves rice cereal (I mix in mushed bananas) and she’ll drink from a cup if I put it up to her mouth.  She will not pick up anything and put it in her mouth. We feed her puffs by putting them directly into her mouth. She was completely spoon fed at the orphanage and has never learned how to self-feed.

We skyped with the boys and our parents last night and put her to bed around 8:30.  She fell asleep quickly on Zach and then slept in her crib until 7:30 this morning. Yeah!  She is currently taking a nap in her crib and doing great.  The boys were thrilled to see their baby sister! I’m not sure what she thought about them! 🙂

Thoughts on today in a little while…