We are in China!

We arrived Beijing on Sunday 1/17! The plane ride from Newark was uneventful, but it felt so long! I can't remember how many times I was asked this question "When are we there?" It seemed that every time I checked the clock, we still had 9 more hours to go.... Yin Yin suffered from motion sickness toward the end of the flight. By the end of the day, he is scared of any type of transportation, period. ha,ha.. Fortunately, I bought some motion sickness pills, it really helped.

Access to blogspot.com(along with many other sites) is restricted in China.   I am grateful that my sister Faith kindly did all the updates for me.  

Our hotel room in Beijing

       

Beijing is very modern, very busy - quite different from what I imagined.  Here is a street view of Beijing, looking out from our hotel window

On Monday 1/18 morning, we flew to Nanjing. Our flight to Nanjing were delayed for two hours - so the schedule was thrown off a little bit. When we got to the hotel in Nanjing, we only had about 20 minutes to freshen up and prepare baby items and gifts.  Then we went straight to the Civil Affair Office to meet Pearl.

Nanjing Airport 

Street View of Nanjing

Our hotel in Nanjing

Our room       

Arrived at the Civil Affair Office

As soon as we walked into the Civil Affair Office, San spotted a little girl sitting on the couch by herself, and right away we knew that was Pearl. I asked the man standing next to her if she was Jiang Wen Xin, and that's how it all began.

Pui Pui and I went up to the couch and I hold her in my arms.    The toy grabbed her attention right away.  She didn't cry at all.  What a brave girl!

Happy mom and dad, confused little Pearl....

 

 

 San going through the all important documents with our tour guide John

Our family and orphanage director and accountant

Back into our hotel, Pearl enjoys her first cheerios experience!

We all tried to make Pearl smile.   Finally Yin Yin and Pui Pui did it!   Pearl broke out her first smile with us!

Peeka.......

 

Boo!!

Breakfast buffet in the hotel every morning.   We love the food!  

 

 

The next morning, we went back to the Civil Affair Office for Pearl's Abandonment Certificate, Adoption Certificate and her Chinese Passport.   Pui Pui reluctantly got her first try on the squatting potty!   She almost cried!   

All done!   She is legally ours!

Jet-lag is really taking a toll on us. I slept on and off from 1pm to about 10pm, and felt really tired all day. Now (at 1am) I am so awake!  Pearl is very quiet and content. She was a little bit confused when we first got her, but she didn't cry at all. She is doing much better today, and would cry when I walk away - a good sign of bonding..! feeding is an issue - she doesn't suck or chew very well(because of her lips), so only able to eat very limited type of soft food. But she loves to try all kinds of food! She is fed mainly on milk now, but seems to be hungry all the time.  Faith and Ben are great helper. I am glad they are here with us.

We will be visiting the orphanage tomorrow (Thanks for all your prayers!). Pearl was one of the three girls came to the orphanage at around the same time. All three were named "Wen" for their middle name. I love stories like that! I hope to know more about Pearl's first year of life tomorrow.