hello from Nanchang!

Hello everyone! And Ni Hao! Theresa, please add this to my blog and FB : ) Well, we have officially been parents since 5 pm Sunday. The nannies brought the babies (all 11 of them) to the hotel in the afternoon. We were the first ones called. They came a bit early and since we were the first called and we just walked in the room we didn't get video of the gotcha moment but did think to throw our camera at another family to take some pics. Amelie was one of the only ones who didn't scream and cry, and believe it or not I didn't cry either, though David may have shed a tear. We took her back to our room and she played with some of her toys and actually laughed a bit for us. She took to D and I equally which is a very good thing. She is making great eye contact with us too. she loves to be held and snuggled on. She refused to take a bottle but she did have her first cherrios which she really loved. That first night around 8 I think she figured out that we weren't just another set of nannies and had a major meltdown. She wailed uncontrably for a few hours until she passed out. She would only go to sleep while we were sitting in an upright position, which made for a looooong night. We probably slept for an hour or maybe two total.

Yesterday the entire group went to the registry office and the notary office, so she is officially ours now. We came back and met with the orphanage director and got to ask some questions about our children. This is a very rare opportunity and we felt lucky to get this chance to find out about where she spent part of her first eight months. He even was willing to write a message for her, though it is in Chinese characters. Amelie fell asleep during the meeting so we put her in bed (ours, not the crib which she refuses to get into....not great for us). She slept for almost 4 hours and we got to catch a few afternoon zzzz's too. In the afternoon we went to the 4 story walmart with the group. What an experience. We were definalty the main attraction. I had her in a snuggly but those who had their babies in a cart or stroller had the locals touching their kids and we all ad alot of stares. We bought some necessities for her and some snacks and soda for ourselves, and a ton of bottled water. I think I have shed a few pounds already between carrying her and not eating much. We do have a "western style breakfast buffet" at the hotel but it consists of at least 60 % chinese food and the american food tastes a little off. Oh and the local food in this area is very spicy, and I don' tmuch like spicy food so that will add to the shedding of pounds this week. We did have Papa John's delivered to the hotel last night which as my friend Susannah described as tasting just like the pizza she had on Fridays at elementr\y school...but it did taste like heaven after a few days of the local fare. Amelie went to sleep much easier last night around 8:30, it is 4 now and she is still asleep (David and i are wide awake though). I will upload some pics tomorrow for FB and my blog, I don't want to turn the lights on to find the camera. I have pics fromj Hong Kong which by the way is such a great city. They even had an English pub called McLovin's (Superbad, anyone?) and shopping to rival NYC. I have pics from Victoria Peak and the Dragon Boat festival attached. Once I upload pics of gotcha day and a few more of her in all her cuteness I will upload them. I probably will just
keep my blog updated thanks to Theresa instead of bombarding everyone with emails.

I hope you all are doing well, I am going to try to sleep again for a bit. Nighty night....