Kaylee is Officially our Baby
- January 24th, 2005
Greetings!
It's
a beautiful day in Changsha, China. Well, it's foggy, misty,
cold, and damp. But it is a beautiful day.
We
had an early start this morning. We met at 7:15am and all
11 families loaded up on the bus. We drove to the same office
as yesterday. Today we paid a lot of the fees, signed some
documents, and had an interview. Sort of. The interview was
with the registration officer. Naomi, Kaylee and I sat at
a desk and prepared for the interview. The registration officer
asked for our passports. Then, she looked at Naomi and said
"are you happy with your baby?" Naomi said "yes"
and then we signed and dated a document. We both put our thumb
print on the document. And then we put Kaylee's foot print
on the document. That was it. It was official. Kaylee was
our baby.
While
we were waiting for the other families the orphanage director
and assistant director stopped by. They just walked up and
took Kaylee from Naomi. They sat down and played with her
for 20 to 30 minutes. They had her laughing and giggling.
It was strange the way they took her. But it was nice to see
Kaylee laugh. Then, when all of the families were done and
we were leaving, the assistant director held on to Naomi and
my hands. Tight. Very tight. She began to cry. She said a
final goodbye to Kaylee and we got back on the bus. Other
families had their picture taken with the folks from the orphanage,
but they did not receive the attention that Kaylee did. I
know that our adoption agency rep (Daphne) talked to them
about the Cat Scan when they first arrived, so they might
have been concerned for her about that. But I don't know.
It was just nice to see how much they loved her.
Dr.
Su is going to stop by and visit with all of the babies again
this afternoon. We look forward to talking with her.
Tonight
we have a dinner celebration at one of the restaurants in
the hotel with all of the families.
Daphne
and Ellen, our agency reps, have been unbelievably helpful.
They are very organized and it makes our job very easy. Daphne
has helped place over 1,000 babies with our agency. Her sister,
Ellen, joined up as her assistant recently. Together, they
make a fantastic team. Daphne even sang to all of the babies
today on the bus ride home. She sang a famous Chinese children's
song. It was beautiful. And hearing her sing it in Chinese
was such a great experience.
Tomorrow
is basically a free day for us. Daphne and Ellen will take
us to the store to buy supplies in the morning. Daphne said
to prepare for a big lunch because there is a McDonald's next
to the store. Haha...
Kaylee
is doing great. She slept until around 1:00am and woke up
for her feeding. Naomi and I got up and fed her and then she
went right back to sleep. Kaylee has a big appetite. No problems
eating. She loves her formula. It's a mixture of powdered
milk, Chinese yam & barley cereal, and water. Yum! It's
not bad. :-)
We
have been working with Kaylee to get her to use her legs and
arms. We help her to practice standing and sitting. And she
is making progress.
Naomi
and I just ate fried rice again. It's the best thing on the
menu.
Thanks
for all of the encouraging emails. Please keep them coming.
Sorry if we don't reply back right away. We are discovering
the demands of parenting. But we read every one of them. Several
times.
Attached
are more pictures.
Naomi
and Kaylee are sleeping next to each other on the bed at the
moment.
What
an experience this has been.
Mark
(& Naomi)
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