We have Ling!!

Another unexpected surprise, this time a good one. The time of our appointment to meet the children was moved up from 2:00PM to 10AM. We found this out at 9:20AM! They must have gotten the children up at 5:00AM to make it here by then, as it is four hours away!!

Ling is doing absolutely wonderful. She is very happy and has not cried at all since we met her. She was super curious about us and very quickly connected. Eric gave her the tiny bear from her backpack and she really liked that, then I gave her the Smarties and she ate them right up. She loved her doll and immediately fed her with the bottle, spoon and bowl and tried to stick Smarties in her eye! She is in heaven with Matthew, who loves her so much already. He is really patient with her.

This picture was taken on the bus ride back to the hotel after we picked her up.

This is a picture of the nanny that brought Ling and Bao, and the girls next to her, waiting to meet us. Ling is next to her nanny, and Bao is next to her.

This is a picture of Ling playing with her new doll.

She likes to put things where they belong and right now is "organizing" her things into Ziploc baggies. She doesn't give up when something doesn't fit.

Amazingly, Ling has already learned the sign and word for "more" as in "more cracker", "more crayon", "more tuna fish". She repeats everything that I do or say, sign or words. She does not, as I suspected, speak much of anything at all in Chinese. This was confirmed by her nanny, who said she understands everything, but does not speak. She does have a very strong will and pushes our hands and yells "Ba" to get her point across. She says "Ca" a lot, too, which means look. We have a feeling she is going to be quite a challenge!

She had a bath and loved it, and spent about 15 minutes playing with the soap and washing her body. She really loves to repeat the words I say, like "washing". She has used the toilet multiple times already and seems fine with it, both squatty and regular, so no problems there!

She came to us with 2 layers of pants and no underwear. After the bath I had put her in underwear and Hello Kitty Jammies and she loved them. A few minutes ago, she found her pants on the floor, took off her jammies and underwear and put the pants on without the underwear again. then she found her shirt, and said "Ca, Ca!" and proceeded to FOLD them up! First she folded in the arms, then the top to bottom, then the sides together! Then put them in the drawer! She found her pants and did the same thing!! Wow.

We have a crib set up in the room and she feels very happy in it. Having two rooms is working out well, as Eric, Matthew and Mary Alice have a spot to go through that is not full of Ling.

This is a video of Ling giving Matthew and I kisses. This is still in the Office of Civil Affairs, shortly after our meeting her.

We are really enjoying her, although it has taken me hours to write this post because she is constantly moving and curiously exploring. Eric had been most of the afternoon with Mary Alice, who is quite put out right now. I wish she did not feel that way. When I try to offer her comfort, she pulls away. I am hoping when we are together at night that she will be more reachable.

Below is a picture of the Lizana family, who are part of our group. They are adopting Qing Ge (pronounced Ching geh), who is 7 years old. Their other son, Andre , is 9. The boy's are really hitting it off and doing all kinds of brotherly bonding. They have an update for their family to read below the picture.

hi, this is the lizana update. qingge has been really great today!!! he was a little shy at first but allowed me to hug and kiss him a little. andre gave him a football, and i gave him the stuffed lion from "aunt jenn". the funny thing was when he asked the guide, grace, if there would be an interpreter at home. also, he didn't seem thrilled about his english name, leo! heehee, so we told him thru the guide that we would continue calling him qingge. he has been very lively, but minding very well, and is pretty funny!!!!! tomorrow we finish the official paperwork.

And here are Stacey and John, with Chao Bao. The nannies call her Bao Bao, and she talks like crazy. She has such long sentences. Our guide, Grace, said Bao told Matthew that his watch was out of batteries! She also loves to eat.

Here are a few photos of the landscape outside the plane. I believe Matthew took this very near the north pole.

This is frozen ice on the Artic Ocean.

This are pictures of the city, taken by Mary Alice.

And last, but not least, here are a few pictures of "Flat Brittany" on the airplane ride to Beijing, enjoying herself immensely.

PS: There was an earthquake in Sichuan, China earlier today, and was felt in Beijing, but we are all fine.