The Streets of Nanchang

The outskirts coming from the airport

There were a lot of people farming. Some with water buffalo.

Downtown

Carla loves to take photos of entire families on mopeds.

Saw a couple just married.

My Happy Girl

Mia loves to play. This is one of her favorite games. That's my guide, Sissy, talking in the background. I love her smile.....but  I love her laugh even more.

Scenes from the park

This morning our group went to a local park here in Nanchang. Our guide said the park is always filled with older retired people and young children. Here's a group of ladies who were practicing some type of choreographed dance routine.

All of the babies from Tonggu SWI.

The beauty of China.

Men playing Mahjong.

Young children practicing their English. They all told us "hello" and "bye bye".

Our guide said some of the older people practice "mental exercise" by writing poems on the pavement with water.

One sweet old man wrote this for our group.

We draw a crowd wherever we go. The locals in Nanchang aren't used to seeing westerners. Let alone a bunch with Chinese babies. So far the response has been positive. They comment on how beautiful the babies are. Of course, many mention how chubby my girl is and they all seem very happy about that. A few have just given me the universal signal of approval by pointing to her and giving me a thumbs up.

These ladies were doing a fan dance. It was quite beautiful to watch.

Another older gentleman getting his exercise with some kind of spinning a toy on a string game. One of the dads in our group gave it a try. Not nearly as easy as it looks.

This little girl was adorable. When my sister pointed the camera at her she cheesed it up with a big grin.

Ergo baby who drools and spits up... hence the protective blanket. Although later she got me good when the blanket wasn't there and it went right down my bra. Nice, right? Thank goodness for cheap Chinese laundry service.

Mia and Aunt Carla

China is such a mix of old and new.

Crazy koi fish.

These ladies sang for us. It was really touching. They loved the babies.

Napping Ergo baby.

Our First 24 Hours Together

Well, I hate to jinx myself...but this baby is amazing. The first hour was rough. Not gonna lie. She took one look at me and the tears started flowing. She screamed bloody murder so loudly our guide rushed me through the paperwork in about 2 minutes. No exaggeration. I signed my name so fast it was crazy. Because none of the other babies cried at the hand off and the guide wanted us out of there and FAST so as to not get the other babies going.

It wasn't how I envisioned the moment I would meet my daughter. But that's motherhood, right? Adjusting expectations. We received the babies in a conference room at our hotel. The babies had arrived to us after a 4 hour bus ride. So our guide sent us upstairs to feed Mia because the babies were hungry. But the orphanage hadn't sent any formula...which I kind of thought they would. So we only had a little American formula. It took several tries by my sister to get the nipple the right size, the mixture right, and the temperature to her liking. Because I was busy trying to console the screaming banshee who wanted nothing to do with me. Finally, as a last resort we added some sugar because we knew the Chinese formula Mia was used to was much sweeter. That did the trick. She sucked down the bottle with a quickness. The nipple was no sooner outta her mouth and she was a totally different baby. Calm, smiling. Carla and I were a little shell shocked like "what just happened?"

It's been wonderful since then. I keep waiting for the other shoe to drop but this kid is absolutely phenomenal. She makes great eye contact. I know it's way too soon to say we've bonded but when our guide tried to hold her for a few minutes last night so I could make a plate at the dinner buffet ...Mia wanted no part of it. As soon as I took her back, no more crying. Again this morning. Our guide said she's never had this happen so fast before. Normally the babies love her. And our two guides have been carting some of the other babies around. But not mine. Carla is the only one that can hold Mia besides me. I'm not sure if it's because she's getting used to us so fast or because our guides are Chinese women. I've heard others say their babies refused everything Chinese for awhile after being handed to their new non-Chinese parents. Not sure why.

Mia is a great baby. And so easy. Lord... I hope I don't regret saying that out loud. But she is so far. She just goes with the flow. She loves the bath and had so much fun kicking her chubby little legs in the water.

She takes her bottle no matter how we fix it now that we have her back on the Chinese formula she's used to. She's not picky about the temp or the flow of the nipple. I'm already learning her sleepy signals. Normally she's very active...kicking her legs, moving, cooing, babbling. When she starts slowing down that's when she's sleepy. She'll also start scratching her forearms, legs, head or pulling her hair to try to keep herself awake. I just start rocking her and she nods off. I'll hold her arms and legs so she can't kick or scratch so then she starts her sleepy song.  

She'll sing trying to keep herself awake. But so far the rocking puts her out. She went right down at 8:30pm last night after her bath and bottle. And slept until 3am. She was up until about 5am but I finally got her rocked back to sleep where she stayed until 8am. She's such a happy girl. This is how she woke up this morning. All smiles.

She hates laying on her back. She wants to be sitting up so every diaper change she does these crunches. She's not able to roll over yet but with those strong ab muscles I don't think it'll be long. She cooperates for diaper changes as long as I talk to her and keep her entertained. She even had her first poop only a few hours after we met and gave me another one first thing this morning. TMI, I know. But a really big deal in the adoption world because so many babies get really constipated with all the stress.

She's busting out of her 9 mth clothes. I brought a few 12 mth size.. thank goodness. Cuz this girl has a Buddha belly. We had to go to the market today and move her up to size 4 diapers! Her little butt crack was hanging out in the size 3. LOL!

I couldn't resist the big obnoxious bow. It's too dang cute. She wore it all morning. But managed to get her hands on it when she got fussy and wanted it off...right now! LOL!

She's very strong. Not sitting on her own yet. But it won't be long. She tries to roll over but only gets about halfway. She loves tummy time and holds her head up like a trooper.

She really just has the best disposition. She's very outgoing. She only fusses when she's pissed off about something. I hear another baby down the hall as I sit here typing just screaming her head off. So far so good with Mia. She only did that once when we were in the market because she was overstimulated with too much noise, needed a diaper change, was ready for a bottle and nap. She only cries when she's trying to get a point across. Generally, I get it right away and then she's all good. She loves the Ergo. Which I'm so grateful for because this 22 lb girl gets heavy real quick. But with the Ergo ..carrying her is easy.

She's got an olive complexion. I think her foster parents may have had her outside a lot because she has a tan line on the back of her neck in one of the rolls. She's also really hairy. Her arm, legs, and back have a lot of black peach fuzz.

We were Skyping with Grandma right before I put her down for a nap. This afternoon we're just hanging out in the room getting to know each other, playing and having some down time after the craziness of yesterday.

She's napping right now. We'll head down to dinner in a couple hours.

Any fears I had are gone. She's strong, healthy, and pretty close on target developmentally. She has the absolute BEST personality. She's just a very relaxed baby. Yesterday was a little touch and go for me but today was easier. It's already starting to come naturally. Figuring out what she needs and when and how to do that. We'll keep getting to know each other more and more during our stay in China.

But we'll do great together. I have no doubts now. I feel so incredibly blessed, so grateful, and so very very indescribably happy. This is the baby that was meant for me. She is my daughter and somehow the universe just knew to put us together.