Hello to everyone at home. Let's get right down to the important stuff. Annalei did great last night. She fell asleep last night around 7:30 while I was gone filling out paper work. She slept very soundly. Almost to soundly. We woke up at our usual 4 am and checked on her. She was awake, just laying there quietly staring at the ceiling, seemingly content. We decided to go ahead and get her up - we just couldn't help ourselves. She just looked so cute! She ended up having her first dirty diaper. After changing it we were going to feed her, but she just fell right back to sleep there on the bed. So, we put her back into her crib and sat there for a while just admiring her as she slept so peacefully. Finally we had to wake her around 7 to prepare her for our adoption interview with the Chinese Civil Affairs Office. At 8 am we headed as a group to our appointment. Once there we all gathered in a conference room where we awaited our turn for our adoption interview. When it was our turn we were asked a series of questions - name, nationality, will you care for this child, do you accept this child, etc. When finished, our interviewer stated "Congratulations, she is now officially your child." -- Really! Wow, did not expect that! I mean, I guess we should have but, through the nervousness of the interview process, we did not expect them to officially state that she was legally ours. Cool! We were both elated. Finally, it is official. I guess it didn't really matter if was official or not, they are certainly not getting her back. She is ours regardless. Once our paper work was finished we headed to get Annalei's passport photo and then back to the hotel for an afternoon of bonding.
We spent most of the day in the room with Annalei getting to know her better and letting her get to know us. She is such a good baby. She is very content to just lay on the bed or to be held. Loves her fingers. Especially in her mouth. She usually has either fingers or a thumb in her mouth. Not all the time, but definitely when getting sleeping. She is also is very observant. Constantly looking at her surroundings. She is starting to "jabber" a bit more, especially when she gets excited. She has discovered her toes. We took her socks off and she just went nuts playing with her toes (and no there not big and long like they looked in her referral picture - very petite actually). We also discovered a few ticklish spots as well. Terri and I both just crack up when she starts to laugh. It is so great to see her personality coming out. I am sure she will be able to fit right into her moms "socialite" shoes. I am pretty certain she will be very out going and personable. You can just see it in her. We did finally get a cry out of her when trying to give her some medicine. She has a bit of a chest cold and we are trying to get ahead of it. Her cry did not last long, but it actually was nice to hear her cry for the first time. Strange I know, but true. The great thing is that she is just a very content baby. She is pretty low maintenance for a child. So far she does not fuss or whine, she eats well when we offer, but she will not tell us when she is hungry. She sleeps well when we want her to and does not fuss when we wake. We are just waiting for someone to wake us and bring us back to the real world. Kids are not this easy - right? Well anyway we will certainly count our blessings. We have been given a gift from God and, well behaved or not, we are very happy to be a part of her life. A lot of people tell us how lucky Annalei is to have us. Hands down, we are the lucky ones!
