Making Progress...

Having her 1st breakfast this morning!

Going to the elevator

This is our first family photo taken yesterday about an hour after we got her.

Lily "sealing" the deal

worth every penny....

Love that bow??? Jess, she loves her doll!

The sticker game worked...lots of eye contact!

I'm not diggin' McDonalds

No kidding.
The first time on a slide.

I don't know..I just liked this picture.

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Stacking blocks are a must!

My sleeping angel.

Today we made some progress. Thank you for the sticker game idea...it worked! This morning, she woke up and I thought she would cry...being in a new place in all...but she didn't. She didn't want to look at either one of us. I think she was in denial of the whole situation. We went and ate breakfast and I made her a big bowl of congee and spoon fed it to her. I think she loved me for those minutes! After breakfast, we headed to back to Civil Affairs to finish the paperwork. Thanks to our incredible agency, Lifeline, paperwork was a cinch. I am giving a big shout out to my favorite social worker, Karla. Thank you for being the most organized person on the planet! I had zero worries today. Also, the guide mentioned how incredibly good our paperwork was! I said, "Yeah, I know, we use Lifeline." The paperwork took about an hour. We had to answer a lot of questions. Like, "Why do you want to adopt from China? Do you like your baby? (uh, yeah!) Do you still want to adopt your baby? (um.....YES!)" Lily had her hand stamped with ink and we all made it official with our fingerprints! Our guide also handed over our payment to the orphanage. (All I could think of was how we are also bought with a price!). Oh, it was alot of money, but she is worth every cent!!! What a great way to use the money God has so richly blessed us with!!! We took another picture after we recieved her Chinese Passport. Her little passport picture is so cute!!! After that, we took Lily to her first McDonald's trip. There are so many things this child has not experienced. (like looking in the mirror, riding an elevator, eating french fries!) They also had a little slide in the restaurant and she had no clue what to do on it. I almost cried. I had to show her how to slide. She was scared at first, then she liked it. There are a lot of things that she has never seen or done. We are seeing that she is delayed in many areas, but that is to be expected. I would say she is on an 18-24 month development level. Oh, I am so glad we get to take her home and teach her! Its just like a clean slate to work with! We have some hard days ahead, I am sure, but we know that we know, that she is our gift and she was made especially for our family. She will learn and grow in time... and I will love her every minute along the way! Oh, by the way, she hated the fries. It was the first thing that we have given her that she spit out. Oh, pooey, I guess I will be at home making dumplings!! (can you get those take-out??, could someone check on that for me? Seriously, I am not kidding! I think they are called pot-stickers) After McDonalds, we went to the museum. Lily really started to open up and laugh a lot. She has gotten really clingy to mama. She doesent want to look or be held by Carlton. This is really hard for him, but he knows that this is a GOOD thing!!! She reaches for my hand when we walk and has given me a couple of kisses today! Lily and I didn't really look at much at the museum, we were naughty and played hide and seek. I had her laughing so hard!! She still has not said too much. I don't think her vocabulary is very developed. I may be wrong, it may still be too early. I also think she is just naturally very timid. She gets shy around other chinese people too.

We are now back to our room and enjoying some "down time". Its amazing how calm I feel now that I am not WAITING!!!! I have her and I just feel great! We will head down to the Chinese restaurant for supper. We are going to put a limit on food tonight. She had an upset belly today.

Tomorrow morning, we leave really, really early for the orphanage. It will take us 4-5 hours one way to get there. I am more and more sure each day, that we HAVE to do this. Lily needs to say good-bye to her nannies. Its very important for her to say goodbye and for them to say" This is your mommy and daddy." I hope to get some pictures too. I will share them if I am allowed.

Love you all,
aimee and carlton AND lily!!!!!!