Gotcha!

First (and most important) things first… our baby is with us and she is happy and reasonably healthy.

The pictures above are from Monday, which some call “Gotcha Day”, which is the day you meet your baby for the first time. These photos were taken within seconds of Bei being placed in our arms for the first time.

The timing of this process seems to change at random. We were expecting to meet our baby on Tuesday but we were told when we arrived in Hong Kong on Sunday night that we would have her on Monday. We were running late by the time we got to Guangzhou because of the bus ride from Hong Kong (a story for another time) so we had 45 minutes to unpack, settle, feed the family, and gather what we needed to take with us to the Department of Civil Affairs of Guangdong Province. Anyplace that was quick to eat didn’t accept Hong Kong dollars or American dollars and … well… another story for another time. Let’s just say when we met Bei there was no shortage of emotion, anxiety, fatigue, or hunger. Yet when we met each other it all washed away.

Because of the advice we’ve gotten and the books we’ve read, we were prepared for rejection or some manifestation of an attachment issue, but we experienced no such problem. She was happy to be held and comfortable and loving with the boys and us. We took turns holding her, talking to her, and making her smile. After a while she fell asleep in my arms and stayed asleep until it was time to go. She laid contently in the lap of her youngest big brother on the roller-coaster/bus ride back to the hotel.

Our baby is tiny. Supposedly 14 months old, I don’t think she weighs more than 15 pounds. Unlike some of the other babies of her age in our group, she doesn’t really crawl very well and cannot stand, even with assistance. She is so small that we gave her a bath in the bathroom sink of our hotel room.

We are having some trouble getting her to eat. The first day she rejected any form of food we offered her and we finally got her to drink 4 ounces of Chinese formula yesterday morning. Our guide suggested we give her some “Children’s tea” yesterday afternoon, which she did drink, but repeated attempts with Chinese formula, American formula, baby food, Chinese congee (rice porridge), American rice cereal, noodles, and even just water to keep her hydrated failed miserably. This morning she drank about 6 ounces of Chinese formula, but immediately spit up a good portion of it.

One of the fathers in our group had heard that some orphanages will give babies something to constipate them before a long bus ride on Gotcha Day so the nannies don’t have to deal with changing poopy diapers while they are on the road. I really think this is the case based on what I’ve heard from some of the other families and the fact that Bei’s orphanage in Huazhou is seven hours away by bus. She drank a little over 2 ounces of Children’s tea after breakfast and we treated her with some glycerin we had brought from the states and that has made things better on both ends. As I’ve typed this last paragraph she has drank four ounces of Chinese formula.

This afternoon we will take the bus to the Guangdong Provincial Public Security Department to get Bei’s Chinese Passport.