Sophie is here!!!!

We have her! She is so sweet and precious. Very quiet. And very curious. She has been so busy looking at everything in her new world that she doesn't recognize. But here's an update on everything we've done in the last two days, leading up to getting Sophie. Be patient - this is the first good Internet connection that I've had in a week, so I might even be brave and try to upload photos again tomorrow.

Yesterday morning, we went to Tiananmen Square and took a lot of cool pictures. Yes, Uncle E, we got a great shot of us with Chaiman Mao for you! Then, we visited the Forbidden City, which is the emperor's old palace. EJ was attacked by some other visitors who literally grabbed her to have her photo taken. She's handling it like a true rock star!

After that, we went to visit the hutong village. That is an old section of Beijing where the houses are in quadrangles and occupied by many generations of a family. We took a wild rickshaw ride and about had heart attacks merging into the city traffic with the buses (JG at work, I remember you telling me about this!), and then even had lunch with a local family at their residence in the hutong and learned all about their pets - fighting crickets! It was the meal that I was a little nervous about (since it wasn't in a restaurant and we weren't sure how everything was prepared), but it was by far the most delicious we've had so far. I really liked the garlic shoots and pork,

Then we made our way to the Bell Tower tea house and learned about brewing and tasting tea. And then it was off to the airport for our flight to Nanchang. We left about an hour later than scheduled and didn't get here until about 9:30 last night. EJ went to bed and then K and I packed the diaper bag for today.

We awoke around 5:30 and got ready for breakfast. At 9 AM Kevin went to our guide's room to handle the final paperwork and get the money ready to pay all the fees for the court system today. Around 9:30, Rose, the national guide, and Shirley，　ｔｈｅ　ｌｏｃａｌ　ｇｕｉｄｅ，　took us down the street a few blocks to the local grocery store. It was very nice, and we bought drinking water, diapers, and some Coke! It was a very interesting store. A walk through the meat department allowed us to look at the tanks of live eels and turtles, and then we saw prepared frog. The butchers carve the meat right behind the counter, and the cuts are thrown into bins (unwrapped), where everyone can pick them up to inspect them - and even replace them if they don't buy them! EJ bought some pencils and a pen that she liked, and because these were in a separate department, the slip had to be hand-written, paid for, and then packaged and sealed. When we got to the checkout, they had to be stamped again...all for less than $1 worth of supplies! We can't wait to go again!

We returned to the hotel around 10:35 and were supposed to be back in the lobby at 11 to meet the babies. When we got to our room, Rose called and said she had good news that the babies arrived early and to come to the conference room. We walked in and many of our travelmates already had their babies. I looked for Sophie but didn't see her. Then, Rose called our name and a nanny lifted her up and there she was! Despite the referral photo, she actually has quite a bit of hair. She is a tiny thing, but was bursting out of the 6/9 month sleeper she was dressed in. She didn't cry at all. In fact, we've only heard one little wimper as K was prepping a bottle this evening. None of the babies really cried. We did a little paperwork and then had about 2 hours alone with her before we had to do three different official appointments this afternoon.

During the two hours, we wiped her off a little - it's very warm here. We'll attempt a bath in the morning. We also changed her into something cooler and gave her a bottle - an interesting mixture of 4 scoops of formula, 4 scoops of rice cereal, and 1/2 packet of milk mate powder. It's very thick. She was so good through all of the appointments (and EJ was too). We got another bottle in her around 5:15 and she fell right to sleep. She slept right through a diaper change a little bit ago and will probably wake sometime after midnight for another bottle.

As I said, she's very serious. EJ was able to make her laugh by just giggling at her. As soon as EJ laughs, she would laugh right back. And when we were wiping her off this afternoon, we found that her armpits are ticklish! The nannies said that she has always been this way and that they really had to work to get her to smile. Hopefully, we can get a few more of those in the next few days.

That's it for now. I wish I had the time to tell you every little detail and story of this trip. It has been fascinating thus far and I'm looking forward to experiencing this city a little more for the next few days. Tomorrow, we're going to Walmart! And then Wednesday, we'll do some touring. Thursday is a free day and Friday we depart for Guangzhou (only a 1:15 flight) to complete the final step in the process.

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