At last...

It is 7am Tuesday morning and YES we picked up Talhia yesterday and spent our first night with her. I am sitting typing and she is having her bottle on the bed. Chris is in the shower.

Back to yesterday. The plane from Beijing to Guangzhou was very nice a big Airbus A 330 and I am sorry to say there was no goats on board. We were delayed at least an hour for takeoff and this caused a bit of stress. When we landed the group of 4 families (the fifth was already there), quickly went through our luggage in the middle of the airport floor for the essentials for meeting our children at the government office. The plan was to go straight to pick up our kids because we were behind schedule. So off we ran, about a mile (it seemed like it) to one end of the airport. When we got there, we had to turn around and go all the way to the over end (and this is a big airport). We definitely got some exercise in the 28C day. The problem was the Asian games are starting in Guangzhou at the end of this week so everything has been changed at the airport in preparation for that.

We got to the government offices around 4pm Monday and we rode up the elevator to the 8^th floor. We are getting pretty excited/scared/anxious now. The doors of the elevator open and we are greeted with a scene I was not prepared for….there must have been 50 over families there picking up their new additions. Wow, all the noise, smiles, crying and screaming. After about 10 minutes it was our turn and out came Talhia. Her Nanny handed her over to us, Talhia was looking a bit puzzled and it was very hot in the room. We got a couple of quick pictures with her, the nanny went to the other room, and then we started to get her to know us. Well did she start screaming! She screamed in Christine's arms, after a few minutes it was my turn to take the handoff. That was no better the screaming continued in my arms for the next ½ hour as she grabbed me and did not want to look at me while Christine left the room to go pay a bunch of fees and sign papers. We tried giving her new toys, seeing picture of herself, cheerios, and a cookie; all to no avail. Hmmm great start but we had been warned this is common.

Then the nanny came back and realized Talhia had been there a lot longer than they had expected and she was probably hungry and needing a bottle. The orphanage gave us a very nice care package. Some of Talhia's cloths, a bottle and formula, a photo album with pictures, and a small gift (that we still have not opened). And yes the bottle did the trick.

We got to the hotel, settled in, had a quick dinner and were back in the room settling down for the night by 8pm. At around 9pm, she started screaming in her crib, that went on forever (OK probably only 10 minutes) and Chris was able to get her settled down. Back in the crib and the screaming started a few minutes later. Talhia wins this round. Christine brings her into our bed and has her go to sleep on Chris's chest. Most of the rest of the night was uneventful, I didn't wake up, the other 2 did for about 20 minutes at 1am.

We are preparing to go for breakfast, and off to another government office to finalize the adoption.

Talhia seems healthy and happy. Her Cleft Lip has not been repaired so we will worry about that back home.

One more note: we have not been able to access our blog or facebook in China, so we have been emailing our updates to the blog site. We will not be able to see any comments until we get back home.

Todd & Chris