Gotcha Liana Jie Jing! (day 3)

What a day!  Oh my gosh, where do I start?  After a night of no sleep (I mean, who could sleep?!), we got up, had breakfast and I packed up Liana's little backpack with a few things.  Our guide met us in the lobby of our hotel at 9 and we headed out for the orphanage.  When we got there, there were some other families already there doing paperwork.  I have met two of the other families on Facebook so it was awesome to be there with them on the day we got our children, although I don't think any of us were aware of each other when it was happening.  We had to do some paperwork for a while, then Ethan had a dirty diaper and I had left the diaper that I was planning on packing in our hotel.  He had to borrow a diaper from the pack that the orphanage gave us for Liana.  Borrowing diapers from his sister before we even met her...sheesh!  Then, after a bit more waiting and watching other kids meet their families, in walks two nannies with Liana.  I thought I wouldn't cry but I did.  I got myself together quickly so I wouldn't scare her and have the ugly cry face in pictures.  I stood there and smiled like an idiot at her, talking to her and nervously touching her arm.  Then her nanny tried to hand her to me.  She wasn't thrilled with that idea so I got a sucker.  She quickly grabbed it but just held onto it and then they handed her to me.  She fussed for a bit but I rocked her back and forth a little and talked to her and she quickly stopped.  After a little while, I decided it was time to hand her to her new Baba (Daddy in Chinese).  She went to Erik, no problem and the nannies laughed and said that most of the kids are like that with men.  She even fussed a little when Erik gave her back to me a while later.  This is very typical.  Most kids prefer one parent over the other at first, and more often then not, it's the dad.  No idea why.  So I admit, I hogged her after that so we could get some bonding in.  She has been an absolute angel all day.  No kidding!  She didn't cry when we said goodbye to her nannies but we had noticed that the nannies were crying as they brought her in.  They told me that everyone at the orphanage loves her.  I'm not surprised.  She seems so well taken care of.  They also told me, a couple of times, that she's very active.  Little do they know how used to that I already am with Liana's big sister and brother (more on that later, for the drama part of the day).  I thought she might fight it or cry as we left the building but she didn't.  We walked around the outside of the orphanage a little and took some pictures and then we got in the van and left.  She was sweet the whole way home and even showed a little personality as Ella was showing her things from her backpack.  She would just grab them out of her hands like she knew they were hers. 

When we got back to the hotel, Erik and Ethan ran down to a restaurant outside our hotel to bring back some hopefully familiar foods for Liana and all of us for lunch.  Erik got Ethan and Ella in chairs and somehow, Ethan leaned back in his and fell backward, hitting his head on the entertainment center.  His head immediately started gushing blood so we called up our guide and she hurried back to take us to the children's hospital.  I didn't know what to do...go with Ethan or stay with the girls.  Erik made the decision to go with Ethan while I stayed back and I cried, knowing that I wasn't going to be there with Ethan.  I've never not been there for a doctor's appointment of any kind.  This is one of the hardest parts of being a mom, I think.  Not being able to always be there for all of your kids.  I have always said that I can't believe we made it to two with Ethan without him getting a broken bone or stitches.  He saved it for China on our first day with Liana.  Poor boy came back with stitches with his head wrapped in a huge bandage. 

While the boys were gone, Ella and I played with Liana.  She was so much fun.  I got her first smiles as I put noodles in her mouth.  She hanging out of her mouth and she must have thought that was amusing because she gave me a tiny smile.  Then she would throw her head back like a baby bird as I put more noodles in her mouth and smile each time.  I was recording her with our video camera and said, "Jie Jing, say 'mama'" and she did it!  First time and I caught it on camera!  Not that she knows what that really means yet or that I'm her mama but still...it was pretty cool!  We learned that she loves to color when Ella got out her coloring book and Liana swiped a marker from her and went crazy with it.  I was a bad mama and instead of putting her down for a nap, I was having too much fun  so I kept her up until she passed out on our bed.  Everyone is napping way too late, except for me of course. 

Okay, enough rambling and let's get to the good stuff.  All you really want is pics anyways, right?!

Shanghai Children's Welfare Institute

 Last pic as a family of four!

Look at her nanny's face <3

 Meeting her jie jie (big sis)

 Please don't cry, please don't cry!

 Aw, she cried

Meeting Baba!

 First pic as a family of five!

Sisters

 With her ge ge (big brother)

 I have a bunch more I'd love to share but I'll leave you with the first smile I caught on camera