Monday, April 9, 2007

Here she is....

Wow. What a day. We are completely overwhelmed. But before I give you the glorious details, here are the long-awaited photos of Li Lei! She will be 7 months old tomorrow!!!



At about 10:30 this morning, a fellow waiting mother from our agency sent an email that she had just talked to our agency and reported that they don't usually get deliveries from DHL until 11:30 or so. At noon, she posted another message saying they had received the packages and she had just received her call. Since we had the same application date as her, I suspected that meant we would get a call too, but I just couldn't believe it. I had been getting ready to go to the cafeteria to eat lunch, but suddenly lost my appetite and was shaking like a leaf! I called K at home, but he assured me that he hadn't had any calls worthy of calling me about, so I tried to compose myself, but didn't have much luck. I stayed in my office with the door closed and hoped that no one came looking for me...

FINALLY, at about 12:40, K called with the good news!!! Her name is Long Li Lei -- Long is her last name, Li is her first name, and Lei is her middle name. It is likely that we will use LiLei as her middle name. Stay tuned for her English name; we're in final negotiations on that one. Some of the names on my short list at one point were Lily and Lila. But this is why we waited to decide...can you imagine Lily LiLei? What a mouthful!

I left work around 2 and met up with K and EJ (who K picked up early from school) and we headed into Brookline, MA to our agency, China Adoption With Love. When they handed us the pictures, our first comments were "Those cheeks!!!" Those of you who have known EJ since the early days know that she never had an ounce of baby fat on her...ever!

Here's a picture of EJ with Lillian (on the left, the owner/director of our agency) and Sherry (on the right) holding up the picture of LiLei. They had a very busy day today, as 20 families received matches. It appears as though the matches were from two different provinces, Jiangxi and Hunan, so the travel group will split for a few days to pick up the babies.


We went through the paperwork, stopped for an early dinner (Chinese food of course!), and then topped it all off with a visit to the ice cream shop, where we bumped into EJ's first grade teacher. EJ proudly served in her first official duty as jie jie (big sister) and showed off the pictures.

As for her report, she is about 24 inches tall and weighs about 12 pounds. We should get updated measurements in a few days. She has no teeth yet. She eats about every 3.5 hours. She awakes at 5:15 in the morning, takes a one hour morning nap and a one hour afternoon nap and goes to bed around 6 P.M. She is a "moderate" sleeper - not sure what that means! She can hold up her head while lying on her stomach and she can roll over. She can locate the direction of sounds or a voice and visually follows moving toys. As for personality, they say she is active, restless, and quick in reaction...sometimes impatient and sometimes obstinate (guess that explains the look in the pictures!). She likes going outside and colorful stuffed toys.

Still can't believe it. We are so thrilled to finally see her face and hear her name and know a little more about her. We can't wait until we are able to hold her in our arms. Travel cannot come soon enough.
ONE UPDATE: I failed to mention in this post that we owe a huge thank you to our agency for all of their amazing work! I know this has been a much longer than expected wait, and I know it wasn't easy for them to deal with a bunch of anxious expectant parents. I have so much respect for the way they handled the constantly-changing dates and expectations--never speculating on wait times and only disclosing known facts, because I firmly believe that they didn't have guaranteed answers for us. Thank you to them for not making promises they couldn't keep or sharing info that wasn't going to make a difference anyway. Thank you, CAWLI, for bringing this cutie into our lives...

11 comments:

Carrie said...

What a cutie!!! Love those cheeks.

Pat Lynch said...

What a pudge...and woohoo cute!
and so young...
I had to laugh at the name thing...I wanted Lily and loved that name...but Lily Lynch was a mouthful too!
Best
Pat Lynch
mom to Keira and Jenna
CAWLI

OldOaks said...
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
Xue said...

Congratulations! What a cute and chubby baby! Love her outfit too.

Anonymous said...

What a cutie pie, looks like feeding time will not be a problem,she will enjoy all your love and attention, and you her's.

Jan said...

We are so excited for you. She is just the cutest baby. We will be praying that the wait will go quickly. How are you ever going to keep Emma grounded, she must be flying high now. Love Ross and Jan

Kim said...

She is just adorable, I am very happy for your family :)

Truly Blessed said...

She's absolutely darling. What an incredible blessing to your family! Congratulations.

RoLo said...

Congratulations what a wonderful Easter surprise

Anonymous said...

Load of love and tons of prayers have been heading your way. Glad to hear that you are all home.

Love & Best wishes from all the Barnards

Anonymous said...

We can't wait to see her! We have been following your trip on line.Love the pictures! She is beautiful!See you at church!

The Boudreau Family