After we survived the heat walking to the supermarket yesterday, we prepared our room for the arrival of Jenna. I started to get antsy at around 5:30 and made Gary get ready to come downstairs with me. When we got the room, we were the first ones there. I walked out of the room to the top of the back stair case and could hear the babies being brought in….most of them crying. I lost it. Gary ushered me back into the room where, about 10 minutes later the babies all came in. It was surreal to say the least. I scanned the crowd of babies to see if I could spot Jenna but there were so many of them…some were sleeping, but most of them were crying or screaming. It broke my heart into a million tiny pieces. Some more of our travel mates started making their way in and even before everyone got there, some of the families that were there early were called to receive their babies. When they called us over, the baby that I watched just minutes before standing with the help of one of the nannies doing a little dance was none other than our baby. When I stood before her to hold her, she just stared and stared, probably wondering why this strange lady is crying and holding out her arms at her. She was wearing an ID tag around her neck that she held on for dear life. When I finally had her, she just stared for what seemed like 10 minutes before she started to cry a tiny little cry…a whimper almost. Then I handed her over to Gary and we were both talking softly at her, then she started that inconsolable cry that I thought would never stop. I realized she has a cold from all the stuff coming out of her eyes and nose and she had a tiny cough that you could hear coming deep in her chest. We could have seen a doctor this evening, but her congestion seems to have cleared up. If it gets worse, we can see a doctor in Beijing.
When we got the room, she seemed to calm down quite a bit. I sat her on the bed and Gary and I played with her and her new toys for about 15 minutes. Then I gave her a bottle, which she seemed to be really hungry for. The babies hadn’t eaten since 1:00pm and it was already 7:00 when we fed her. We had to bathe her as she was filthy…..and she absolutely loved her bath. I rocked her to sleep and finally at around 9:30 we laid her down on our bed where she slept all the way straight through until around 7:00am this morning. I couldn’t get any sleep because I was so worried about her but she was a trooper! Tonight, she's in her crib right beside me.
Today was all about paperwork. We had a meeting with our guides to go over and sign all the paperwork then we went to the Civil Affairs Office where all the families legally adopted these precious little babies. Then we went to the Notary and were asked some more very informal questions.....like do you like your baby? Ummmm, let me think about that for a minute....
This baby is the most amazing little thing we’ve ever laid our eyes on. She’s always smiling and very easy to please. She has such a great disposition and we love her to pieces.
During her bath tonight, Gary was taking her out of her little bath tub after getting all squeaky clean to hand her to me in her big towel when he noticed poo poo floating in the tub. Well I already had her in her towel so we waited for Daddy to drain and clean her tub with Lysol Disinfectant wipes (I knew there was a reason why I brought those with me!!). What a great guy. Although he flushed the whole 8 wipes he pulled from the container down the toilet so that plugged the toilet and we had to get someone to come and fix it. By the way, do you realize how hard it is to describe a plugged toilet and the need for a plunger to someone over the phone who speaks very little English? You get my point.
One more thing…..yesterday after we got the babies, our guides' translated documents from the foster parents to give to us. Here’s a little bit of what it said:
- weight 8.4kg
- she has 8 teeth
- she’s recently had a cold and took medicine for it
- gets up @ 7:00am, naps twice a day, goes to bed at 9:30, has 4 meals a day
- she likes to sleep on her side and is a good sleeper (and we found out that she’ll switch from side to side a million times before she gets it just right, and that she’ll sleep right through a diaper change)
- she likes noodles very much (although we fed her some this morning and she didn’t like it…then Gary realized it was too spicy!)
- and last BUT NOT LEAST…….her nickname is JiJi and she’ll answer to this name. Is she perfect for us or what!!!???
Tomorrow, WE SHOP!!!!
happy baby
she loves this thing
orphanage workers who say Jenna's foster mother loved her very much and has been very worried about her. Worry no more, this baby is loved!
Sweet dreams baby.....
2 comments:
Hi Gi, if I were you, I will not change her pet name, leave it as it is, anyway most of us (& your friends) just call you Gi, then you can call her JIJI, the whole word. Her real name will be Jenna Maria and that will be her pet name, sheis confuse enough right now, if you change it and beside it probably happened for a reason! I loved it. DAD & MOM
I HAVE LEARNED FROM TITA JOSIE THAT 'JIJI' MEANS "BABY" IN CHINESE !!!! THERE YOU GO.
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