Nanning 12/4/07 2:00 pm local time - PICTURES ADDED

GOTCHA!

Sorry everyone - I had typed an email last night that
literally took me an hour and the computer just
stopped - I lost everything - this was about 10:30 pm
and right after Gige woke up. They just now fixed the
thing so I am able to update.

Yesterday was gotcha day and what a great day! I
recognized gige immediately as she hasn't changed at
all since her referral pictures. They had her dressed
in a super cute quilted red top and pants that made
her look like she weighted 50 lbs. The Orphanage
supervisor handed her over and she didn't shed even
one tear (made me a bit nervous). Chloe came up to
her immediately and handed her the pink bear that Kel
had given her and she grasped it right away and held
on tight. Chloe had gige laughing in less than 20
minutes and I am still flabbergasted by it all.

A lot of activity in the room and most of the babies
were crying I think but they are all so amazingly
beautiful and every single one of them looks like
their referral pictures so none of them have changed
much in 8months (since the pics were taken).

Gige has 2 bottom teeth and I think 2 or 3 top teeth
(can't tell bc she keeps biting my finger). Her eyes
remind me of my friend Denise's Anna funny enough and
they are from the same province. She is very active,
just a wiggle worm and is walking around like a
drunken sailor (we are going to Walmart tonight so I
will be snagging some squeaky shoes if they have
some)-(also a pizza from pizza hut!). She has
completely attached to CHloe but has a ways to go on
me yet. Does not lift her arms yet for me and has a
hard time with me holding her (trying to face her in
while she is in the bjorn in hope that this helps) -
it will all take time and I didn't expect anything yet
anyway = though it is hard for Mom and Chloe as I
won't let them hold her (for any length of time) until
I can see some attachment progress.

She shakes her head no, likes music, like teething
biscuits and of course loves cheerios. She also says
MaMa (and the paper they gave me stated this as well
so not sure if they taught her this or what). Her
nickname is Nini and I love it. She loves the CHinese
lullabies that Chloe listens to at night. She moans a
lot especially when she grabs and eats a cheerio. She
is right handed. She is wearing a 12 month top and 9
month bottoms both seemed to fit her pretty well.

She is sitting on my lap right now (in the bjorn)
laughing her butt off because CHloe is putting on a
goofy show for her. Chloe is going to be exhausted as
she has been spending a lot of energy on entertaining
her sister.

I am pretty wiped - still not sleeping through the
night but am getting up later = today was 3:30 or 4 I
think. We did official stuff today = finished the
Chinese side of the paperwork - left here at 8:30 am
and got back around 12:30. Gige did sleep for about
an hour in the bjorn before a portion of the paperwork
and is still very, very tired but doesn't want to miss
anything by going to sleep. She went down last night
(after crying quite a bit - which I was glad for as I
think she was finally grieving a bit) - she finally
fell asleep only to wake up about an hour later -
grieiving again for about another hour and then fell
asleep on my chest = she then slept until 6am this
morning.

We have such a great group - I really hope that we can
all stay in contact with each other after this. Chloe
has made a new friend, Sarah and the two of them have
been hanging out quite a bit with each other. XiXi,
our guide has a 6 year old daughter that she has
adopted and we will get to meet her in Guilin (where
XiXI is from), which is great since Sarah and her mom
will not be traveling to Guilin so CHloe will still
have someone to connect with.

Mom was quite pleased today when one of our traveling
companions gave her the update on the new NE coach but
couldn't understand why none of her daughters/bils
stateside didn't send a special email to notify her of
this seriously important bit of news :-)

I am really missing the food we had in Beijing. We
did get adventuresome yesterday at lunch before gotcha
- fried duck in lemon sauce (not great), honey bbq
pork spare ribs (wonderful), sweet and sour pork with
pineapple (mom liked it, too sweet for me), of course
rice!

Tomorrow we have something going on at 10am - can't
remember what it is though - just trying to hang on to
all of my paperwork and not lose my passport!

Obviously, there are not pics yet - have them but
can't load them - me trying may have been why the darn
computer quit on me last night so I won't be trying
again until I can get somewhere else and maybe use
their buisness center.

Gotta go, ciao for now.

K
PS: To Stephanie - XiXi did translate your letter and
gave both the letter and photo albums to the Guiping
SWI supervisor

____________________________________________________________________________________
Get easy, one-click access to your favorites.
Make Yahoo! your homepage.
http://www.yahoo.com/r/hs