Day 7: Adoption Day

-sent 3 am China time/2 pm at home

To Wild Man and Little Miss...
We love you both so much. We are so proud of how brave you are being while we are away. I hope you have been tearing your paper chain and marking off your days. If you have, you know we are almost half way there. We will be home before you know it. We could feel your excitement this morning when you "met" MeiMei. We can't wait for you to meet her in person. Have a great day. We love you all the way to the moon and back again. Love, Mommy and Daddy

Today we awoke to Typhoon Koppu and the flooded streets of Shamian Island. Guangdong province is in Southern China, north of Hong Kong and bordered by the South China Sea. We are in Guangzhou, Guangdong which is a 2 hour train ride from Hong Kong. When came down for breakfast and saw the water up to the front hotel step we assumed our morning appointment would be canceled. There was no way out--or so we thought. Ha. Apparently our driver did not get the memo that one should NEVER drive through water across a roadway. He thought it was perfectly OK to drive a van full of families through standing water up to the doors around an island surrounded by a River. Since Grace thought it was "very safe" as well we were instructed to get in the van. You can put this on the list of the dumbest things we have ever done because someone told us to do it. Apparently once or twice a year when a typhoon hits the mainland, Shamian Island is flooded by the Pearl River (which surrounds the island on all sides). Lucky us to get to experience it. :-i


Once we made it through the flooded streets we drove back to the Civil Affairs office. MeiMei was extremely upset to return to Civil Affairs. We were there for about 2 hours finalizing the adoption which was pure torture for her. She was hot, tired and completely overwhelmed to be back there and surrounded by all of those people. Our guide Grace is sweet as pie but SLOW AS MOLASSES which made the morning incredibly stressful for us. Thankfully we do not have to go back there anymore.


When we got back to the hotel we went out to lunch at Cow and Bridge with the Guarino's. It was YUMMY YUMMY--the best meal we have had in a few days. MeiMei ate a little bit of chicken and noodles. It was so stinkin cute to see her slurp those noodles like spaghetti. We'll work on manners later but for now the cute factor prevails.

The Chief picked up our laundry after lunch and this is what we found inside the laundry bag... Washed, dried, ironed and neatly folded clothing right down to the unmentionables. That laundry bag was almost full and THIS is how it came back to us? Three bags of clothes? Crazy!


She took her first bottle when we got back to the hotel. She WOULD NOT take it any way but sitting straight up. If I tilted her back, even slightly, she totally lost it. We tried to take an afternoon nap but she was having no part of her crib. She slept on my chest for a bit but we were afraid to let her sleep too late in the day.


We had dinner at a really yummy Italian place on the island and ran into my pal Amy from RQ (an online group for adoptive parents). We snapped a quick pic of the girls together. Don't they look thrilled? I'm so glad we were able to meet in person. Hopefully when they meet again they will have smiles instead of frowns.


Bath and bedtime was rough tonight but hopefully it will get better with each day. These little black pajamas have been in the top of my closet since winter 2008 when I won them in a giveaway. I was soooo excited to see they fit MeiMei perfectly. (Kim W--please tell your pal that I was finally able to use them. :-)


I wish I had taken pictures or a video of what happened tonight but I will do it if it happens again. You are not going to believe me but MeiMei fell asleep standing up in her crib. STANDING UP! She was terrified to lie down but we thought she stopped crying when we left the room because she couldn't see us anymore. Nope. Not the case. She was asleep...STANDING UP. She wasn't waving to us. She had wedged her legs in the slats and thrown her arms over the sides to support herself and fallen asleep...STANDING UP! She was moving her arms to balance herself. After watching her for a while, we were afraid she would topple out the crib on the hardwood floor. Sooooo...we did what we NEVER do...we put her in bed between us. I have a bad feeling that is going to come back to bite us later but what are we supposed to do?

As for MeiMei, she is doing OK. She is grieving fiercely and breaking our hearts in the process. She dislikes us both equally so she does not prefer either of us. She ate today and took two bottles which is an improvement over yesterday. They say each day will get better. I hope they are right. This tops the cake as the hardest thing I have ever experienced in my life. Feeling so helpless to comfort someone you have loved for so long only to be rejected in return. She has EVERY RIGHT to grieve, to be sad, to mourn, to push us away. I completely understand WHY but it doesn't negate the fact it is incredibly difficult for us to watch. Hopefully tomorrow will better than today and the next and the next... Please continue to pray for MeiMei and her broken heart.

Goodnight from China...