Arriving in Changsha, Hunan - Meeting Abby!!
3:10 pm Tues Jan 6 in Changsha
1:10 am Tues Jan 6 Central Time
Quick hello to all ... just to let you know that we are in Changsha and will probably be meeting Abby within the hour! :-)
We slept pretty well last night (8 hrs!) and had breakfast in the HK Airport at McD's. Then it was off to check in for our Dragon Air flight from HK to Changsha, which took about an hour. We had our temps checked at both airports and I was worried in Changsha when they did pull a few people aside, but our group of 10 and our facilitator moved right through there, then on quickly through immigration ... the bags were waiting, the bus arrived as we walked out the door, and here we are!
The hotel is beautiful, it's the Grand Sun City Hotel ... http://www.zenithhotels.com (check this out for $43 a night U.S.!)
So now we wait ... the diaper bag is ready, there is a crib (!!) in our room, the bottle is on the counter and waiting to be mixed with formula ... all we need now are those 5 little girls whose lives are about to change forever. Our Abby is the youngest of the girls, but only by a few days. 4 of the 5 were born in Jan 2003, and one was born in Feb 2001.
Mitch is watching TV that is in all Chinese and eating ribbon candy he brought from home. I feel like I need a brown paper bag to breathe in and out of before I hyperventilate. HA!
So the next post we share will be the details of meeting our daughter, which should be happening very shortly. Thanks for all for the well wishes ... we really do appreciate the connection to home!
Lisa
PS ... hugs to Drew and TJ!
5:55 pm Tues Jan 6 in Changsha
3:55 am Tues Jan 6 Central Time
Right after I posted the last message our facilitator, Echo, called and said the babies were on the way, probably about 10 min from the hotel now. So of course all 5 families dashed down to the lobby, video cameras in hand. We had been there for about a minute when Mitch saw a van loaded with people, and then he noticed they also had babies with them! The video tape started rolling (as did the tears).
I was pretty sure the very first baby in the door was Abby, but it was hard to tell, plus we hadn't seen the other girls yet. We taped them getting into the elevator, and then followed them up in a separate elevator car. Once we got to our floor where the girls were spread out on a big playmat that the hotel provided, I was sure that the baby I thought was Abby was indeed Abby ... and sure enough, I was right. It was kind of chaos and everyone taping and trying to figure out who was who, and before I knew it they had put little Guo Kui Yan into Mitch's arms ... and she was NOT happy! HA! She cried on and off for the first hour to hour and a half, but now Mitch has her doing belly laughs at his antics. If you know Mitch, you are probably not surprised!
She's scooting around in her crib now, thinking about taking a nap but not certain she wants to. They said the girls only had short naps today due to the time they left to come here.
We met with the orphanage staff and one of her caretakers and had our pics taken with them. At that time Abby was not very happy with us, so we did not stay long or ask very many questions. She was in 3 layers of clothes ... a snowsuit, a two piece heavy sweater and lightweight shirt and split pants, so I just really wanted to get her back to the room and peel off those layers so she would cool down. We're having some problems with the electrical plug in the room here, so I'm going to post a couple pics quickly before it dies, then we'll solve our outlet problem. But for now, we are very excited and will have lots more pics and things to share!
Lisa
TJ and Drew ... you have a sister now! :-)
Another update on Abby's first day with us ...
10:15 pm on Tues Jan 6 in Changsha
8:15 am on Tues Jan 6 Central Time
Well, the little girl who screamed when put into our arms a few hours ago is cracking herself up (and us) and playing with her Daddy on the bed all smiles and giggles. She can sit up and put herself into a sitting position from lying on the bed, she's doing great developmentally. She puts the stacking cup in her mouth and shakes
her head ... quite the ham. She has the cutest dimples when she belly laughs and wrinkles her nose ... and we both just MELT :-)
Our updated report says she had nine teeth on Dec 9 ... but unless I'm blind, I only see four. I had a hunch that was off, haven't seen too many 11 mo olds with 9 teeth! And it also said that she weighed 18 lbs, but the scale in our bathroom shows more like 16-17 lbs. She is wearing a 6-9 mos outfit that I brought with room to spare. Put a size 2 diaper on her teeny-tiny tushie and it fit just right. She really is a peanut!
We let her nap from about 5:30 to 7 pm and then woke her for a diaper change and bottle. She wasn't too interested in the bottle so we loaded her up in a stroller provided by the hotel and went downstairs to eat. The waitresses all fussed over her and brought her some rice congee (kind of like oatmeal, but made with rice) and
she went NUTS over it! She was attacking the spoon like a shark when it got near her, HA! She was sitting between us in the stroller and would start rocking back and forth when she wanted more. She also tried a little bit of bread but really filled up on the congee and then didn't even have much of her bottle.
Tomorrow we go to the Hunan Province Civil Affairs Bureau and make this precious little one part of our family, officially. She has been part of our hearts for a long time, and part of our life today ... but tomorrow China acknowledges that she is part of the Scott Family. We feel very blessed and thankful for this little miracle sharing our room tonight. How did we get so lucky to have a 3rd wonderful child to share our lives?
Until tomorrow ... hugs to Drew and TJ!
Lisa