First Night with Naeleigh

We had a wonderful first night with our little girl.  She ate a good dinner...

Had a bath, which she seemed to like.  We read that her caregiver gave her a bath every morning at 8am.  Those of you who know me well, know this made me a very happy mommy.  Naeleigh liked the water, except when I put it on her head.  Other than being cold, she did great.

Not too long after her bath, Naeleigh went right to bed.  She slept soundly from 9:10 until 7:15.  She refused to wake up.  We actually had to wake her up to go eat breakfast.  It took her at least 30 minutes to fully wake up. 

She is such a cuddler!  All she wants to do is be held and snuggle!  I remember someone else who was exactly the same way!  My sweet Brett...Mommy and Daddy miss you so much, Bubby!

Her hair is so fine, the clip I put in this morning slipped right out.

She is incredibly attached to this pink bunny.  It goes with us EVERYWHERE.  If it falls on the floor, she pitches a fit!

We finalized the adoption today at the Civil Affairs office.  She is officially our daughter!!!  Thank you, Lord!



After leaving the office, we went grocery shopping.  Talk about stressful.  I don't think I will complain about Wal-Mart anymore...well, maybe not for a little while at least.  Thank goodness we had a guide with us to interpret all of the labels and translate for us.  I cannot imagine doing all of this without Holt International and Lotus Travel. 

We came back to the room and Naeleigh took a full bottle---she sucked it down-literally.  She fought a nap with everything she had.  We played on the floor and were being silly together.  I got her to laugh and smile! 

I am constantly kissing her cheeks and today, she kissed me back!  I was so surprised!  She is showing a little reluctance towards Daddy today.  She didn't want to go to him this afternoon or give him a kiss.  So, I kept kissing Michael on the cheeks and saying, "Love Daddy!"  Finally, she puckered up for him too!  Yay!!

Of course, again, they are now napping together.  This is my favorite picture from today.

First Bath with Mommy

First Bath with Mommy from Michael Peavy on Vimeo.





Gottcha, our little Fen Fen!!

Well, today did not begin as we planned.  Last night, we ate Papa John's Pizza for dinner.  We were so excited to see pizza.  Apparently, my body did not feel the same way.  We are not sure what happened: probably a combination of the grease, cheese, and nerves, I spent a lot of my night being ill----really ill.  I'll leave the details out.  About 5:00 this morning, I cried out to God and asked Him to take this away from me.  He, after all, is our Great Physician.  By noon today, I felt 95% better.  Praises be to Him! 

We had lunch and then prepared to meet our baby girl.  We departed at 2:00pm.  When we got there, the room was practically empty. 

 

 

 

Our final moments of waiting began.  Then, Catherine (Holt employee), came to tell us that Naeleigh was just now getting there.  They were going to walk her through the room we were in, and take her behind the curtain.  Talk about dangling something in front of us!!  But, it was ok!  This is what we saw when they brought her through.

 

Her nap is from 12:00 - 2:00.  So, basically, she slept on the way to the office but did not get her nap out at all.

 

About ten mintues later, it's our turn!!!

 

Let the crying begin!







 

 

 

 

 

To try to calm her down, we offered her a cookie and a sucker.  Neither of which she was interested.

 

Nothing was really calming her down at this point.  Catherine told us in a meeting earlier today that her orphange was very fortunate and privaledged.  She has had music therapy and even been to hear live music.  This gave me the idea to start singing to her.  This isn't the greatest picture of me, but I love the look of contentment on her face.  She quit crying within 30 seconds.

 

Daddy's turn!

  

 

 

 

Mommy had to have another turn.

 

 

The fantastic news is, yes, she did cry a lot at first.  That shows she at least understands there is a big change going on and she was attached to her caregivers.

 

 

She really likes my hair.  And, she loved the shirt I was wearing (intentional choice!).  She kept playing with the jewels on it.

 

We got back to the room, and we tried to feed her a bottle, since it was time.  She drank a little.  Then we whipped out these bad boys: Cheerios!!  She compeltely loved them.  She ate some and then handed me the container back.

 

 

And this is what she is doing right now with her Daddy.

 

 

She does not appear to favor or reject either one of us.  We will see how the night goes on.

 

God is good....all the time.

 

 

 

 

Gotcha Day Videos

 

00002 from Michael Peavy on Vimeo.

 

 

00003 from Michael Peavy on Vimeo.

 

 

00004 from Michael Peavy on Vimeo.

 

 



Guangzhou Arrival!!

As the plane was descending on Guangzhou, my eyes filled up with tears.  I could not help but think of all the months that we have waited to be here.  I looked around at God's beautiful creation and I was so grateful that He has brought us here.  I wondered exactly where Naeleigh was--I kept looking at Michael and saying, "I can't believe we are here!  This is where Sissy lives!"  Brett always calls her "Sissy!"

Guangzhou feels just like Savannah: hot and humid.  We felt right at home.  Beijing was nice and cool, so this was a big climate change for us--but nothing we are not accustomed to.

There are flowers and greenery everywhere in Guangzhou.  This is very different from Beijing.

Our hotel is incredibly nice.  We are very blessed to be staying here for the rest of our trip.  Some other families in Beijing had to go on to other provinces to meet their babies, then make their way to Guangzhou to complete the visa process.  Since Naeleigh is here, we get to stay put in this gorgeous place!

We had a nice little surprise when we got into the room.

Here are some pictures I took of our hotel room.  As soon as we arrived and got to our room, I immediately went into "Mommy Mode."  I got everything out that belonged to Naeleigh.  I began packing her diaper bag for Gottcha Day tomorrow.  I got out all her toys and snacks and took a lot of pictures.

This is my bracelet from when I was a baby.  Mom and Dad gave it to Naeleigh--I brought it to give to her on Gottcha Day tomorrow.

I will post tomorrow when I can.  We'll see how this goes.  We are leaving to meet her at 2pm.  Prayers needed! Love you all!

The Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, & The Silk Factory

We had a very busy day today.  First, we visited Tiananmen Square.  There were so many people visiting today!  Crowds everywhere!  The Chinese do not really give you personal space and they do not "do lines."  It's just not part of their culture.  We got stared at a lot.  People were constantly taking pictures of us.  There's a couple with us who have a two year old son with red hair and blue eyes...he was a celebrity today.  He is so adorable.  The crowd thought so too. 

 



 

 

 

We then walked to The Forbidden City.  This was definitly an experinece.  I knew it was going to be a big place---I had no idea how large it really is.  8,000 rooms!!!  We just kept walking and walking.  My favorite part was the Emperor's Courtyard.  It had beautiful rocks, trees, and flowers. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



After lunch, we finished the day at the Silk Factory.  They showed us how they get the silk threads to make clothes, scarves, comforters, etc.  It was very tempting to buy a silk comforter--but very expensive!

 

We leave tomorrow morning for the airport at 8:30.  Our flight is at 11:30.  It's about a 3 hour flight to Guangzhou.  Compared to what we did on the way over here, that's a piece of cake!  I cannot wait to post pictures of my baby girl!  All of the parents are getting very anxious.  We just don't know what to expect and how our kids will react to us. 

 

Looking forward to blogging from Guangzhou! 

The Great Wall, The Jade Factory

Wow!  Our baby is from a beautiful country.  Today was amazing.  The Great Wall was our first stop this morning.  We climbed to the top of one tower.  It was like climbing an incredibly steep mountain.  Thankfully, the weather was nice and cool.

 

After the Great Wall, we ate a delicious lunch and went to the Jade Factory.  There were beautiful carvings everywhere!  Michael bought me a Jade bangle at the factory.  It is a special type of Jade that is called Jadeite.  It is almost as hard as a diamond.  Basically, that translated to Michael that I could not mess it up (since I am accident prone).  The Jade bangle is a traditional piece of jewelry that mothers wear on their left wrist.  The longer you wear it, your body oils and body temperature cause the Jade darken in color.  I love it!  It is going to be my favorite souvenier!  One day, when (if) Naeleigh gets married, I will pass my bangle on to her.  The sales associate that helped us received hers from her mother--and the bangle was passed on 3 generations before her mother.  I thought this was very special.  We also got Naeleigh a pair of Jade earrings to wear one day.

This last picture may seem strange--Michael took a picture of the sun attempting to break through the smog.  I cannot tell you how awful the air is polluted in Beijing.  The smog is unbelievable.  Not to mention, there is cherry blossom pollen floating around in the air all the time!  Thank you, Lord for Benadryl and Zyrtec!

 

Oh, and we received a Red Book today that had more detailed information about our daughter.  In the orphanage, they call her Fen Fen or Fen BB.  Fen is the second part of her Chinese name (no idea what the BB is about).  They also told us that she likes sweets!  So, the Dum Dum suckers and Peeps we brought should help when she is upset.  We are preparing ourselves for her Gottcha Day.  We have been told that she is attached to her care giver and is somewhat afraid of strangers.  Please say a prayer for us as we meet her. Pray that she recognizes us from the photo album we sent.  We expect crying---but pray that she will adjust to her "Mama" and "Baba" quickly.  We love you all!

 

Tomorrow we will visit the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square! 

Beijing!

We are here, everyone!!!

We had kind of a rocky start with our first flight, almost an hour delay!  Thank the Lord, though, we had plenty of time to connect to our flight in Chicago.

We were exhausted when we got here.  We ate at a restaurant near our hotel.  We almost fell asleep in our dinner plates!  We had been awake for about 27 hours at that point.  We went to bed early last night and are feeling great!

About to see the Great Wall of China!  Love you guys!  We'll post pictures soon!

And we are off!!!

We are leaving for China in the morning!! Please pray for us as we travel tomorrow. We land in Beijing at 3 pm China time, which is 3 am for you guys! Pray for good health and prompt luggage arrivals!

We will keep you all updated. Not long now until we meet our beautiful girl!

Good night!