We are finally a family of four!!!!!!

Praise God from whom all blessings flow. We have finally been united with our precious Madeline Bei!

We have had such a busy day, which is why I am just now getting to type this post at 3:00am Ch*in@ time! I will do my best to recap everything. But let me just start by saying we are in love!!!!

We met our guide, Eric, in the lobby of our hotel at 2:00pm and headed off to the civil affairs office. The office didn't open until 2:30pm, so we had a wait a little bit before we could go in. We sat down and proceeded to fill out some paperwork when in walked the Drewes' daughter Jing. She is 6.5 years old and was so brave. We were able to capture some photos and video for them. I know they were so thankful. We went back to filling out our paperwork. And just as we were finishing up, our "little" Jin Bei walked in with Mr. Yang and Mr. Ma. She looked so beautiful in her new clothes. She did well taking all the toys we offered. But as soon as we tried to walk over to the play area, she clung to Mr. Yang. She wanted nothing to do with us. We gave her cookies and apple juice, which she willingly took. But she cried on and off durin the duration of our stay.

Through our guide, Eric, we found out that Madeline Bei was in foster care. We found out what she likes to eat: everything! Mr. Yang poked Madeline's arm and basically said, "See?" LOL. It was pretty funny. We had previously learned that Madeline was found with a note. So we inquired about receiving a copy of it. They told us how to bathe her and when to put her to bed at night. Mr. Yang told us about how she was very spolied in the foster family because she was the only child at home. He also said that we should continue to hand feed her and hold her a lot, which is exactly what we planned on doing to foster attachment anyway. We received a very nice photo album of Madeline. It contained many photos of her from when she was a newborn. It was quite surprising to see such young photos of her. We will surely treasure this album. Just like when we adopted Caleb, I made a photo album for Madeline of our family, her house, and her bed. Well, Mr. Yang liked it so much, he asked to keep it! How could we say no? LOL. So I guess I will just have to make her another one when we get home. Mr. Ma gave us the orphanage's address and email so that we can share photos of Jin Bei with them. They want to pass the photos along to the foster family.

Mr. Yang and Mr. Ma decided it was time for them to slip away. And well, Madeline Bei was not going to let them go without notice. She start crying pretty hard. She wouldn't let me pick her up; it was like her feet were cemented to the floor. I asked Patrick to lift her up, to which she replied with kicking and screaming. He eventually set her down, and when I reached out my arms to hold her, she reached back for me. That was basically the beginning of a very clingy night for our precious girl.

Before heading back to the hotel, I was in desperate need of relieving myself. There was no way Madeline Bei was letting me leave her with Patrick. So I took her to the bathroom with me. As soon as I squatted over the squatty potty, Madeline squatted too. I finished my business and then motioned for her to use the potty. She looked at me confused, but then when I picked her up, I discovered why- she already peed! So I had to head back out to get her a pull up to put on. Good thing her top was long because I didn't pack a change of clothes!

We drove back to the hotel, which she did well with. We got up to the room, and I decided to let her explore a little. She found the phone on the nightstand. And we were quickly reminded of Caleb's affection for the same thing. So we unplugged the line from the wall and let her push the buttons. Caleb was such a great big brother, blowing bubbles and showing her how to pop them. She smiled a lot at that. She let me give her some stickers. She loved to hide one of them in the crease of her left arm, like playing peek-a-boo.

But then, she would look around the room and become overwhelmed with all that had just happened in her little world and would begin to cry. All I could do was hold her and tell her not to cry in my lousy Mandarin. She would continue to cry on and off for quite some time. Patrick ordered room service. And she let me feed her congee. He ordered me a burger with fries. And since she was quite curious with what I was eating, I shared my fries with her. She ate them up. She eventually had a little poo poo in her pull up from all that apple juice and eating. Let me tell you, she was NOT a fan of having that pull up changed. As I sat in the chair next to the bed with Madeline Bei in my lap, she clung to my iphone while it played some soothing tunes, Caleb's point and shoot camera, and her own little Mickey Mouse play phone. Around 6:30pm, she began to cry nonstop. It wasn't until 8pm that she had finally cried herself to sleep....only there was no way she was letting me put her in her crib. I tried three times. But her sleep was so hypervigilant, there was no way she was sleeping anywhere but next to me. The crazy thing is that Caleb had already fallen asleep in the bed, right next to Madeline, as she exercised her vocal cords. Well, Patrick said, "I guess we're a real Ch*inese family" as all four of us settling in to bed for the night. We put Madeline to bed the same way she was when we left the civil affairs office- no bottoms bracelet and stickers and shoes all on.

Around 3am, Caleb woke up and shortly after, Madeline woke up. But to my surprise, she didn't start crying. She laid in the bed watching us and playing with her stickers and bear. One of her shoes had partially fallen off, but when Patrick tried to take it off, she quickly put it back on. Then she felt safe enough to fall back asleep....which is why I am just now getting around to sharing about our day. I will share the photos you are itching for in the next post. I want to get this one on the blog before I loose my connection!