Sleepless in Thomasville

Picture - This is Julia after we returned from the hotel in the dress that they sent her in. We had just taken out her many ponytail holders and were worried that the indentations in her hair would not come out. Her hair was clean and they looked like they took really good care of her. She loved the car that we had just bought at Wal-mart the day before. This better not be a sign that she is going to prefer fishing over dancing.




She has a dimple. Lookout Cousin Megan and Kasey. Okay. I will now back up to tomorrow afternoon at 3:45 p.m. and tell you a little about Julia. (It is 4:00 a.m. here--hard to sleep) We arrived at the hotel (Civil Affairs Office) and walked down a hall to a room where we all stood. Well, okay, on the way down to our room, one of the families accidentally saw Julia sitting in a room with an orphanage worker. We decided when David said stay put and I'll be right back that we would work our way out of the room and down to take just a little peek. Long story short, we took our peek but others did not, aka, Grandma Susan. She was all of a sudden missing only to be found spending a little time with Julia with the camera. When she decided to return to our room full of anxious mothers and fathers waiting to receive their babies she shared with me where she had been and asked if I would like to see the video. No, I want to be suprised, Yeah, right. Most of us took sneek peaks of our precious daughters while a couple didn't want to see until they walked them in. I cannot load the gotcha video because it obviously is too large. I will see if I can find another way.


Julia initially didn't do anything when I picked her up. She was the first one brought in and just stared at everyone. It seemed like she was the only one that could walk in by herself although others can walk. I introduced myself to her and gave her a doll. We are not sure if she is speaking Mandarin or Cantonese and the doll is Mandarin. She's looking kind of funny at it still so it must be the later. I was kind of concerned because she didn't cry but shortly after we sat down and stared at each other for a while she started to have tears develop in her eyes. She cried for a very brief time and has not since. I could almost see the instant that she realized what was going on and that she was leaving with me.

We came back to the hotel room and before bath time, David came up and talked to her to get her to drink her yogurt. You could tell she instantly understood what he was saying to her and she started to drink. Thank you, David. She is a very heavy child..not big..but thick. She is fitting in some of the 18 mo items and I would think the 24 mo will be too big so that worked out perfect. She was not very fond of the bath at first but then warmed up to the toys. She then had her outfit changed several times as the bows were just not matching perfectly.:) Poor girl. Her feet are a lot smaller than what I purchased shoes for so we will be shoe shopping today. I think the whole group is going shoe shopping after the civil affairs paper signing.

In the room she ate several things things and then we took her to dinner. She ate again. We actually got a smile from her at dinner and Nancy noticed a dimple. When we would take her picture, she would smile really funny at the camera after the picture was taken. It is hilarious. She is really funny to watch. When we got back to the room, Grandma Susan cheated and said she was only going to have her sit in her lap while I quickly loaded the video for Tim. Five minutes and she was out like a light in her arms. She has a little bit of a fever - please pray about that- but besides that seems to be okay. I woke her up for some Tylenol and to change her clothes again into her PJ's. I then layed her in her crib and thought she went right back to sleep only to walk over again later and she was just lying there looking straight up. She is so quiet right now. She went to sleep a shortly after that and has been asleep every since. I'm glad someone can sleep around here.

I am so anxious for her to get up and see how she does this morning. She seems to really like us and likes to play with Matthew. The foster parents returned all the items I sent to her in her care package. She instantly recognized her Mother's Day bear so we gave it to her when she started crying at the Civil Affairs Office. Her blanket has been used. She is actually sleeping with it right now. We are going to give the clothing back to orphanage today. We have to take a picture first thing this morning for the passport or something and Lily is going to ask them to develop the film that the parents returned to us.

It was weird because after we got her woman are starting to walk up to her and talk to her. A group of teenage girls walked up to her after dinner and starting talking to her in Chinese and one of them curled their tongue up at her and she curled hers back at them. I do not know where she learned that but it's pretty impressive. I, myself, cannot do that. She also likes to nod her head at you. We are not sure if she is saying yes, you will give me more food or if she is trying to dance. Her bio said she loves music and to dance. Today should be interesting. We will be going downstairs to breakfast in a few hours and meet up with the other families to see how their night went. I only heard a couple of cries down the hallway last night so maybe it was a good night for all. I'm really nervous because our night went so well and absolutely do not know what to expect today.

Please continue to pray for her health, our health and that her transition continues to go smoothly but yet she naturally does go through her grieving process however hard that might be for us but healthy for her. I will take lots of pictures today and update tonight. More paperwork today and then shopping. Lots of Love to all, Leah (please overlook any typos - I am running off little sleep around here)