Monday morning we were all a little shell shocked. After the adventure of the previous night, and knowing that our daughters would be in our arms in a few hours, our heads were spinning. Luckily, we had Daphne to lead the way.
First of all, we met Daphne in the lobby on the fourth floor of the hotel to fill in some paperwork. She also trained us on how to make the formula the same way they did it in the orphanage. As soon as she finished (about 9:00), she said, "Okay, run to your rooms and put your paperwork away. Grab your cameras and traveling companions and run back here. The babies are on their way!"
We all raced to the elevators and pushed the buttons. However, when the doors opened we couldn't get on because TWELVE PEOPLE HOLDING OUR TWELVE BABIES STEPPED OUT! We were stunned!
I saw Malia immediately. The man holding her saw me staring at her and tried to get her to look at me. She was holding the little toy bunny we had sent to her orphanage several weeks earlier. I couldn't breathe. I couldn't look away. I just wanted to cry!
But we couldn't hold our babies yet. Daphne shooed us all to our rooms. I've never run so quickly!
Finally, when everyone had returned, Daphne lined up the twelve people holding our babies. She called out the family's name one by one. Each family went up to get their baby, while everyone else looked on and took pictures. Malia was number eight in line---which is a lucky number in China!
Finally, Daphne called my name. Kevin was by my side while Evie worked all of the cameras. The man handed her to me. She just looked at me---kind of leery, kind of unsure, but she didn't cry. I was trying my best not to cry also, since I didn't want to upset her. She just sat in my arms, tense, tears in her eyes but not crying, until the last baby was joined with her family. Daphne then told us that the babies had been on a bus since 5:00 that morning. They hadn't had their diapers changed or been fed. She told us to go to our rooms and make them happy!
When we went to our room, I tried to change Malia's diaper first thing. As soon as I laid her on her back, she started SCREAMING. She was not comfortable enough with us to be on her back. We quickly changed the diaper and gave her some formula.
Next we set her on the bed and just played quietly with teething rings and stacking cups. We found out that she LOVES Cheerios. After a while, she didn't seem to think we were too bad and we even got some smiles out of her.
At 2:00 that afternoon, we had to go to register the adoption paperwork with the Chinese government. They had to take a fingerprint from me and a footprint from Malia. Next we had to go get our pictures taken. Through it all, Malia was very patient. As long as there were Cheerios nearby, everything was just fine in her world.
That night, a pediatrician in our group gave Malia a once-over. Kevin and I thought we detected a rattle in her chest. The pediatrician thought that maybe she had a little bronchitis, so we started her on some antibiotics. We only kept her on them for three days---after that, she was perfectly healthy. However, it was great to get a professional opinion that we had a healthy daughter!
That night, Kevin babysat Malia while I went to a meeting with the orphanage director and assistant director. They told us how much they tried to give our babies, but that their facilities are far from adequate. They also gave us the disposable cameras we had sent weeks earlier. They took pictures of the orphanage and of our babies' "everyday" lives. These pictures will be such an important part of Malia's history.
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