Family of Five

Yesterday Abbie joined our family!  She is doing so, so well.  On the trip to the hotel, she cried about 30 minutes of it, then conked out asleep for the next 25 minutes or so before awaking a couple of blocks from the hotel, at which point she began screaming again.  When we got to the hotel room, the boys anxiously greeted her and tried to play with her, but she wasn't having any of it right then - she cried and whimpered and cried some more.  After about an hour of that, we decided it was time for a change of scenery and headed out for a walk around the hotel.  I loaded her into the Ergo carrier, and just like that, she was peaceful and calm for the first time since her nanny handed her to me.  It. Was. Magic.

We walked around and the boys kicked a beach ball up and down empty hallway corridors.  Abbie watched from her perch in the Ergo and followed their every move.  We had lots of eye contact and she just seemed so content.

After a while, we came back to the room and she happily hung out on my lap taking Cheerios from my hand and eating them.  She'd say, "Ma" after she'd swallowed some down - I think that meant she wanted more, as she sort of opened her mouth and pointed towards the bag.  So, we had some more!  A little while later she discovered the wall mirror and we engaged in a bit of peek a boo looking at the mirror - it was the first time she smiled!  Back to the Cheerios, I opened my mouth and she fed me a Cheerio - this was apparently very funny because she burst into a fit of laughter.  It was hilarious.  We took turns feeding each other Cheerios, looking in the mirror at each other, and smiling and laughing.  (They are the Trader Joe's whole grain, high fiber Cheerios, and they're NASTY!  But, anything to make my girl happy.)

She went right down for bed and slept soundly from 7:30-5:30.  Brayden and Gavin were awake yapping around 3:00; at around 4:00, Adam and I joked that we thought Abbie would be the one keeping us awake last night, not Brayden and Gavin! 

Today we fly from Beijing to Nanchang to start the official adoption process.  Nanchang is the capital of her home province, Jiangxi.  We will be there until Friday, when we fly to Guangzhou to process her US immigrant visa. 

I'll try to post pictures when we get settled at our next home base.