I still can't believe it! It's after 10pm here and I am so tired after the big day I've had but I had to post pictures of my baby girl! She is beautiful and it has been an amazing day! I have been able to post to my blog but not able to read the comments so I just changed it to email me on my yahoo email I set up for China so hopefully I can read your comments. Or you can email me directly at kouklacara@yahoo.com while I am in China.
We left Beijing at 9:30 this morning for the airport. Our guide Dennis is so great. It's nice to not have to worry about anything because he just tells us where we have to be and what time and what we have to bring each day. CHI is so organized and thourough, I'm happy with them as my agency so far!
Our flight to Nanchang was good - we got in at 2pm. The weather here is not cold to me, it's humid and in the 40's and 50's. I like this city better than Beijing, you really get a feel for the culture and the real China here. Granted, I've only seen out the bus on the way from the airport to the hotel and the hotel to the adoption office but I liked what I saw. There are even palm trees here.
We got to the hotel at 2:45 and had 45 minutes to prepare to get our babies. Of course, me and my new friends in my group could hardly contain ourselves! We were so excited and emotional! I made the hotel room cozy and homy since she can't be in her own nursery yet - the hotel gave us a crib, kettle to boil water, and a stroller! :-)
We left at 3:30 to go to the local adoption office where our babies were waiting for us. There are 5 other families with me in Nanchang and all our babies are from this province but 4 of them are from Yifeng! When we got to the adoption office there were other people getting off the elevator with their babies and of course me and my new friend Amy in the group started crying!
So did our new friend Sue. We got up to the 26th floor and the babies were there. We were trying to identify whose baby was who's and I spotted mine before we got formally introduced. She is such a sweetie pie. The first name to get called out was our new friend Ginny and she adopted a 3 year old girl, I started crying again at this point. Then my baby was the 3rd to be called! She went right with me. All the babies went to us, no crying or anything like they said it usually is. they were very calm and happy I think they were in shock! Their day was such a different day for them - they rode on a bus for 4 hours - never been in a car before, and off their schedules for napping and eating. We were expecting them to be crabby and tired and screaming and crying but they weren't! :-) and guess what? My baby got carsick on the way here! Is that fate or what - she's just like her mommy with motion sickness!
She was cuddly with me and looking all around taking everything in while we were at the adoption office. Then when it was time to go we got in the van - still no crying and went back to the hotel. I changed her diaper, put some new clothes on her, we played - I got her to laugh by giving her zerberts on her belly! She is so sweet and cute! We took video too and can't wait to show everyone more pics and video!
Then at 7pm I had to go do some more paperwork in the lobby so nini watched the baby.
I came back about half an hour later and decided to give her a bath in the inflatable bath tub we brought with us because another family in one of my groups said how great it was to have.
I also heard from other Yifeng families that the babies are scared of the bath tub and might scream and cry the first few times because they've never had a real bath where they are naked in the tub, they just get sponge baths and don't completely get undressed. I decided to try it with a little water, cozy bamboo washcloth from Aunt Pamela, and organic baby shampoo/soap. She was a little cautious at first and then came the little tears and then the all out crying. I felt so bad I just did it real fast and then cuddled her in her hooded towel. Let's just say we might wait a few days before trying that again - it was traumatic for her on a day with so many changes. I wanted to bathe her since she had thrown up but now I wish I didn't try it, she recovered fast though so hopefully little by little she will learn to like bath time!
I am glad my mom is here with me cuz as a first time mom - of course I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. sure I've read the books and prepared myself, babysat, etc but when you are changing a diaper on your baby for the first time or making a bottle you feel unsure of yourself so it's nice to have someone with you who's done it before! She's been great!
Well I am really tired - so I am going to take a shower and go to bed! Tomorrow we have to be ready by 8:30 to do more paperwork and legal stuff at the adoption office and we will be back at the hotel around noon. I think that's all that we have to do so hopefully we can have a laidback day and take things on our own pace - we need to go to the store for a few things. The food in Beijing was good but tonight we ordered room service from the hotel and it was no good. So we are unsure what we are going to eat this week - maybe rice and clif bars??? We shall see!
We are thinking of all of our loved ones and wish they could be here with us. We can't wait to come home and introduce you to Amaya! You are going to fall in love with her! She is beautiful!
We left Beijing at 9:30 this morning for the airport. Our guide Dennis is so great. It's nice to not have to worry about anything because he just tells us where we have to be and what time and what we have to bring each day. CHI is so organized and thourough, I'm happy with them as my agency so far!
Our flight to Nanchang was good - we got in at 2pm. The weather here is not cold to me, it's humid and in the 40's and 50's. I like this city better than Beijing, you really get a feel for the culture and the real China here. Granted, I've only seen out the bus on the way from the airport to the hotel and the hotel to the adoption office but I liked what I saw. There are even palm trees here.
We got to the hotel at 2:45 and had 45 minutes to prepare to get our babies. Of course, me and my new friends in my group could hardly contain ourselves! We were so excited and emotional! I made the hotel room cozy and homy since she can't be in her own nursery yet - the hotel gave us a crib, kettle to boil water, and a stroller! :-)
We left at 3:30 to go to the local adoption office where our babies were waiting for us. There are 5 other families with me in Nanchang and all our babies are from this province but 4 of them are from Yifeng! When we got to the adoption office there were other people getting off the elevator with their babies and of course me and my new friend Amy in the group started crying!
So did our new friend Sue. We got up to the 26th floor and the babies were there. We were trying to identify whose baby was who's and I spotted mine before we got formally introduced. She is such a sweetie pie. The first name to get called out was our new friend Ginny and she adopted a 3 year old girl, I started crying again at this point. Then my baby was the 3rd to be called! She went right with me. All the babies went to us, no crying or anything like they said it usually is. they were very calm and happy I think they were in shock! Their day was such a different day for them - they rode on a bus for 4 hours - never been in a car before, and off their schedules for napping and eating. We were expecting them to be crabby and tired and screaming and crying but they weren't! :-) and guess what? My baby got carsick on the way here! Is that fate or what - she's just like her mommy with motion sickness!
She was cuddly with me and looking all around taking everything in while we were at the adoption office. Then when it was time to go we got in the van - still no crying and went back to the hotel. I changed her diaper, put some new clothes on her, we played - I got her to laugh by giving her zerberts on her belly! She is so sweet and cute! We took video too and can't wait to show everyone more pics and video!
Then at 7pm I had to go do some more paperwork in the lobby so nini watched the baby.
I came back about half an hour later and decided to give her a bath in the inflatable bath tub we brought with us because another family in one of my groups said how great it was to have.
I also heard from other Yifeng families that the babies are scared of the bath tub and might scream and cry the first few times because they've never had a real bath where they are naked in the tub, they just get sponge baths and don't completely get undressed. I decided to try it with a little water, cozy bamboo washcloth from Aunt Pamela, and organic baby shampoo/soap. She was a little cautious at first and then came the little tears and then the all out crying. I felt so bad I just did it real fast and then cuddled her in her hooded towel. Let's just say we might wait a few days before trying that again - it was traumatic for her on a day with so many changes. I wanted to bathe her since she had thrown up but now I wish I didn't try it, she recovered fast though so hopefully little by little she will learn to like bath time!
I am glad my mom is here with me cuz as a first time mom - of course I feel like I don't know what I'm doing. sure I've read the books and prepared myself, babysat, etc but when you are changing a diaper on your baby for the first time or making a bottle you feel unsure of yourself so it's nice to have someone with you who's done it before! She's been great!
Well I am really tired - so I am going to take a shower and go to bed! Tomorrow we have to be ready by 8:30 to do more paperwork and legal stuff at the adoption office and we will be back at the hotel around noon. I think that's all that we have to do so hopefully we can have a laidback day and take things on our own pace - we need to go to the store for a few things. The food in Beijing was good but tonight we ordered room service from the hotel and it was no good. So we are unsure what we are going to eat this week - maybe rice and clif bars??? We shall see!
We are thinking of all of our loved ones and wish they could be here with us. We can't wait to come home and introduce you to Amaya! You are going to fall in love with her! She is beautiful!
PS - I couldn't get the pictures to rotate because besides yahoo and my blog everything else on the computer is in Chinese! :-)
5 comments:
AW!!!! I'm an auntie!!!! Call me again... I was sleeping.
Hi Amy,
What a wonderfull little girl. I bet you are over the moon with her.
We have put the referral photo next to the new ones to see how she has grown over a the last month or 3.
Interesting story about the tub too, now we are also prepared for a possible little drama :-)
We now know that we will travel around the 19th of January, so we will follow your blog to read about your travel.
Warm hugs from us to Amaya, mom and yourselves.
Fred and Bianca
Congratulations Mommy! She is beautiful and looks right at home in her Mommy's arms :)
Hi Amy,
Congratulations! I found your blog by doing a search on first-time and new moms. It's wonderful to finally be a mom (I am a mom of 3-year-old twins). I have a blog which I put up to help mothers in their transition to motherhood and I list links to other first-time moms blogs. I would be interested to hear if your experience as a new adoptive mom is similar to that of new birth moms. I would suspect that it is. Would you be willing for me to post your blog as a link on my blog?
Again, congratulations on your beautiful new daughter!
Cheryl M. Wenzel-Nelson, M.A.
http://newmomcentral.blogspot.com
Congrats! It's so wonderful to see the smiles and excitement on your faces! Amaya is beautiful! Enjoy your new time together.
Melissa Golowacz
NDSEC
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