We have the baby!

Hello everyone,

We are so sorry that we are just now posting. The travel was very long and then we had some time that we spent figuring out the technology here in China. I won't bore you with the details about that but will get right down to yesterday's experience. We had a meeting yesterday morning to give us an idea about what to expect. There were 14 families that received their babies yesterday from Xiushan.

When it was time, we all went downstairs to a conference room. Chairs were set up all along the periphery of the room. We all were just waiting for 30 minutes or so. We were all so excited and nervous all at the same time. Finally, the nannies and babies came into the room and then it all happened so fast. Our guide called out the babies' Chinese names one by one in a pretty swift succession. We were about 2/3 of the way through and Maya was handed over to us just like that!

She is a very brave little girl and handed the hand over without crying. We took her over and held her and got to know her. She took to Allen really well, investigating his beard right away. She looks very healthy and her weight is around 20.6 pounds according to updated paperwork. She was dressed in a cute pink outfit - check the pictures!

The head nanny was there and took a picture with each baby with us. She clearly was very familiar with each baby. We will have a chance to speak with her this afternoon to ask some questions about each individual baby. When we were having our picture taken, she told us through the guide that Zhen Zhen is not afraid of new people. Good thing for us!! (Doubling the first name is a sign of endearment and we are also calling her this for some time to make her more comfortable with us.)

We took her back to the room. I went back to the conference room to take care of the paperwork and Allen played with the baby. When I returned to the room, he was clearly having fun with her - making funny sounds and tickling her tummy! She was starting to warm up and making little sounds. Then Allen went downstairs to sign the paperwork and it was my turn. We played a little with the stacking cups and I bounced her on my lap and she liked that. After a little while, she just melted into me and just seemed to relax into sleep. I just laid back on the bed and let her sleep on my chest for 30 minutes or so.

The rest of the evening was spent playing with her and just trying to get to know her a little. The only real stressful part of the evening was when we tried to give her a bath. She was really scared of the water and we abandoned our attempt pretty quickly. We will try again. Over all, I think she did very well.

We changed her into her jammies and tried to feed her. She finally did take some water and formula and also enjoyed some Cherrios. She is sleeping right now and it is the middle of the night in China. I woke up and with everyone asleep, I thought I would get this post up as I know so many people are waiting for news.

I am going to add some pictures. I am sure that I will get more at some point because everyone in the group was taking pictures of everyone else and we are going to share them at some point. I will also add some from Allen's camera tomorrow.

Wow! What an amazing experience! More later...

Love, Karen & Allen & Maya