Oh she is MAGNIFICENT!!!

Well, we met our precious Fu Mei today. They brought us into a meeting room at the Civil Affairs Department building and all four babies from our group were in there already. Julee and I were last to enter the room and I looked over and saw a little girl that "might" have been her but she was so little I thought she might be too young to be Fu Mei. Tricia was already in the room and began filming (she promises footage tomorrow). I was squeezing Julee's hand and looked at Julee and she was crying. I looked back and saw the nanny pointing to me and telling Fu Mei I was her new mommy. I waved to her from across the room and then Michelle said it was our turn...I sprinted over to a corner of the room with Julee right behind me, threw off my coat and important papers and knelt down. The nanny sent her over to say hello (Ni Hao) to me. She is so beautiful and sweet. I spoke to her and told her in Chinese I was happy to meet her. The nanny then told her to give me a kiss ... oh it felt so wonderful! She then walked over to Julee who hugged her first and then Fu Mei gave her a kiss. I looked at Julee and just saw a filled up heart! Our moment really could not have been sweeter...and I will forever be thankful for that.

We spent about a half an hour with each other....2 of the other babies were crying pretty hard so it was hard to hear everything but I broke out the Cheerios and she loved them. She even fed me one. I had some stacking cups and a little soft baby doll for her to play with and that was all she needed to be content for the time there. Soon tho the director and nanny had to leave and that was when she first cried. It was so sad but completely expected. But I will be writing General Mills a very nice thank you letter!!!

We left with the children on the bus back to the hotel and have spent the entire rest of the day with Fu Mei just watching her and feeding her. She loves her Cheerios best but she also liked the dried apples, french fries and a cookie. We got on the computer to Skype with Ken and Al (set up in advance for Al to join Ken at 11pm in SC, 12noon in China) so Al could hear how Gotcha went. She was sitting on my lap while I was talking to Al so I had her say Baba to him and JuJu and I love you. Al could not even speak. That was really special.

I downloaded over 100 phrases in Chinese on to Julee's ipod so we began playing a few of them for her. We told her she was safe, that we love her and not to be afraid. She picked up on the ear bud thing immediately and held on to the ipod for dear life. It was amazing. Thank goodness for that because we were able to communicate right away. She has cried a few more times during the day, we think it's when she realizes she is alone with us without the nanny. It is heartbreaking knowing she knows alot about what is going on but not enough to be okay with it yet. She appears to have been well prepared for her new life and she also appears very healthy. She was able to tell us that she has to go to the bathroom and when I finally got the SIX layers of clothes off her, I saw that she really is only about 22 or 25 lbs. She is tiny!!! She was not happy with me taking off her clothes and so I put them right back on her minus a couple of layers.


We have already taught her "more" and "drink" with sign language and between Julee, Tricia, Garrett and I, we know the Chinese words for "You are safe", "It's going to be okay", "Do you have to go to the potty?" and a few more. We had to have her foot inked onto some document, so Michelle came to our room for that and we had Michelle talk to Fu Mei for us. We told her she is loved and asked if she was hungry (yes). Fu Mei already knows the words Julee, Mama, Garrett and Tricia. She can say almost anything you ask her to. One time, when I tried to eat one of her Cheerios, she shot me the look of death. I recognize it well from Julee.


The only other time she got upset with me was when I put her on the potty right before bedtime. She was not happy at all and was pushing me away. I just kept at it. All in all, it was a magical day that I will never forget but thoroughly exhausting. Julee slept for 2 hours this afternoon, and has been asleep since 7p tonight. She is worn out emotionally. This was very hard on everyone and I am already longing for the days when Fu Mei looks at me with love. I trust it will come now that I have this precious child in my arms.


Thank you for all the love and support, it helps us so much!! I only have one decent pic so far...more to follow though. Look how many layers they have her in.