Baby Steps

Today we had lots of baby steps -- both literally and figuratively.

Ruby woke up much less sad this morning. We still haven't seen a smile but her cries today were generally ones of anger rather than the deep sadness of yesterday. When our guide picked her up she whimpered and immediately reached for me. But boy was she mad at me when she had to go to bed tonight!

She drank a complete bottle of formula/rice mixture first thing after she woke up this morning (the first one since we got her). She also polished off a big bowl of congee at breakfast. Unfortunately that is about all the food I could get into her today. But it was more than she ate yesterday and I have been able to get her to drink water fairly well.

She still wants to hold something in each hand all the time. But today she actually started banging the things into each other. She spent time turning them over in her hands and looking at them, even occasionally chewing on them. She even built a little tower with her stacking cups. She crumpled up a piece of paper and spent 15 minutes inspecting a McDonald's french fries box. Also when we went to the play room this evening she rolled a ball back and forth a few times with Abby! Finally she is beginning to play and interact a bit.

Ruby also took her first literal baby steps for us today. She is very wobbly and quite pidgeon toed. She stands with her legs as far apart as she can get them. Many times she forgets to move her feet forward and just steps side to side in the same spot. It is so cute!! She prefers that I hold her hand (actually her wrist since she has something in her hands at all times) but also did venture a bit on her own.

Tomorrow we are going to the Yuntai Botanical Gardens. It will be nice to spend some relaxing time outdoors after three days of official business in stuffy offices.

After a bath this morning -- which she hated by the way

Grieving

I'm sorry I haven't been able to post much yet. Ruby is grieving so hard and I really need to be with her. She is the most precious little soul. So tiny and fragile and sad. Abby has been such a wonderful big sister. She plays little games with Ruby and doesn't get at all discouraged that Ruby only sits there silently and doesn't respond at all. Abby just keeps on talking so sweetly and shows Ruby how to play.

Receiving Ruby

We arrived at the Guangdong Civil Affairs office around 2:30. There were quite a few other families there -- I would guess around 12-15. The room was a bit stuffy and I could feel the anticipation in the air. It was so wonderful to look around and see so many families waiting for their little ones.

Ruby arrived very shortly after we did. Rebecca gestured to me to come over to her on the other side of the room. I was about half way there when I saw Ruby being carried toward me. As she was handed to me she started to cry. She only cried for a few minutes and then completely shut down.

Our poor baby! She is grieving so hard. She hadn't uttered a single sound for almost 24 hours. And just now she began crying the most heart-wenching cry I have ever heard. As I sit here holding her and wiping the tears and sweat from her sweet face I just want to cry right along with her!

On our way to Civil Affairs -- two thumbs up from Abby

Our first glimpse

Abby with our wonderful guide Rebecca

A very scared little girl

Our Precious Ruby

I know you all are just interested in the photos so here they are -- will write all about our day later.

3 Hours and 15 Minutes

The countdown is on -- we get Ruby at 2:30 today!

A "Relaxing" Day on Shamian Island

First off let me say that my idea of relaxing isn't the same as Abby's idea of relaxing. That girl had me on the run the entire day!!

After waking up very early (actually closer to the middle of the night than morning!) we got dressed and wandered around the White Swan for a bit. It was very dark and quiet and we watched the staff starting to set up the breakfast buffet, checked out all the big jade carvings, and wandered all throughout the lower area of shops and the fish ponds.

After a very early breakfast we decided to walk in the park and watch all the people doing their morning exercizes. Abby thoroughly enjoyed this special time with just mom -- something that we don't get to do very often at home. The gardens in the park are so peaceful early in the morning. We then spent a couple of hours just strolling around the island and watching it slowly wake up.

At 10:00 we met up with our guide Rebecca to go shopping at the Carrefore store for baby essentials, snacks, and bottled water. We also met Sara and Brian, the other family in our group who are adopting a Guangdong baby. The rest of our group will arrive here on Friday since their children are in other provinces.

As soon as we got back to the hotel Abby was immediately ready to set out again. Sara and Brian joined us and we again walked from one end of the island to the other and back again. And any of you who know our Abby personally know that she talked a mile a minute to anyone who would listen the entire time! We were wandering around for almost three hours. I think Abby tried to explore every inch of every shop we went into and every street and alley we ventured down.

After a late lunch at Lucy's around 3:00, per Abby's requested itinerary it was time to hit the swimming pool. Even though the afternoon was quite warm the pool water was too chilly for Abby to stay in long. So we came back to our room, ran a full tub of warm water and she jumped in with her bathing suit on. We blew up the beach ball, starfish and fish and pretended it was the pool. By that time she was so exhausted that we snacked lightly in our room and she was snuggled up in bed and snoring by 5:30! And there wasn't another peep out of her until 5:30 this morning.

Hopscotch in the park

Abby has decided that China is her favorite place in the whole wide world!

Adventures in Japan

Our flight from Seattle to Japan was basically uneventful. When we arrived in Japan, however, we had a little bit of excitement. Our plane was boarded by heavily masked health inspectors and every passenger had to have a thermal screen done to look for signs of swine flu. Thankfully everyone passed and we were allowed to continue deplaning.

We had a three hour layover at the Narita airport, during which Abby lost a tooth! We found it on the floor and have it safely put away in a ziplock baggie so that we can bring it home and leave it under her pillow for the tooth fairy.

Health inspectors

I wonder what these guys thought about all the passengers taking their photos!

Abby in Narita Airport

Missing tooth