Today marks the day that 3 years ago Barry, Dad and I met JIN YAN YI in China! She was a scared little bundle of joy that was about 17 pounds and 29 inches. We knew that she would be tiny, but she was smaller than we imagined a 13.5 months old would be. The pictures that we had were taken at around 7 months, so we knew Anna would have changed a little and would have more hair!
We had fun when we all woke up talking about that special day and the boys shared what they were doing that day here at home with Grandma Sidwell. It is still as vivid as yesterday! We cleaned out Anna's closet yesterday and stumbled upon the bag of clothes that Anna was wearing the day we met. She tried them on to see how she had grown. She thought it was funny that Hello Kitty is on the pants and Mickey Mouse is on the shirt!
It is so hard to imagine life without Anna in it. It is even harder to imagine what life for her might be in China if she were still there. We are still ever grateful that Barry's sister kept nudging us to adopt from China like they had and she kept insisting that Faith had a cousin in China. We are thankful to Logan, too, for begging for a sister from China, too, Christmas 2004.
That day in China was amazing. When I gave birth in the hospital, I was surrounded by my husband and many nurses and the doctor. When we "gave birth" in China, we were surrounded by 9 other families, the nannies that brought the babies in and it was sooooo loud in that room in Nanning, Guangxi! Many of the babies were just screaming and crying. Anna was as calm as could be until we wanted a picture of her with the man from the SWI. Then she cried a lot!
Anna with the clothes on from the day that we met her. My how she has grown!
One of the 3 pictures of Anna that we received 2 months before we met her.
We soon found out how comforting these fingers were for her for the first 13.5 months. Too bad she is still found sucking on them at age 4!
Here is what I posted to our website that day.
April 4, 2005
The internet connection here in Nanning is horribly slow. So we are not going to be able to load too many pictures from here. Needless to say, today has been wonderful.
Wow! What a day! It is now 9:30 pm here and all is going well. Let me tell you how it all happened. I (Jen), of course didn't sleep well last night. After all, I was having a baby in the morning! We ate breakfast and got things ready to go in our room and organized for when we came back with Anna. We finally went down to the lobby where many of the people in our group were pacing around and anxious to board the bus to the Civil Affairs Building. We left to meet Anna at 10:40. As we arrived on the floor where we were told to go, we noticed that the babies were waiting across the hall with their Nannies in a room. The first girl I saw was Anna....at least I thought it was her. I noticed her sweet little cheeks and knew it had to be her. We were all talking about how the babies all had hair and I told my friend Christie and her husband that I thought I saw Anna and she was wearing red socks. Time at this very moment seemed to move so slowly and we thought they would never bring the babies in! My friend Robin and I had such a hard time remaining calm and just wanted to cry! Barry and Dad were taking some pictures and video.
Then it was time for an interpreter to announce the Director of the Social Welfare Institute and welcome us all to Nanning. She said a few things about what to expect with the babies and that they might not eat very much today. Then it was time for the babies to be presented. Christie's baby was first and then they said Jin Yan Yi and in came a beautiful little girl wearing red socks. I was right! It was her that I first laid eyes on in that room across the hall. She came right to me and was not crying at all......but I was! It was such an emotional time and so hard to express into words. I walked over to Barry to show him his new daughter and what a feeling that was. The seven months of paperwork and five and a half months waiting all led up to this very moment and time was now standing still. Barry held Jin Yan Yi and smooched on her a bit. She still remained calm. There were nine other families in the room besides us and we all had just given birth at the same time. WOW! What an amzing thing to be a part of and witness. Dad was videotaping this "Gotcha" moment through his tears and came over to hug me. Eventually I wanted to have a picture taken of the director with Anna and gave her to him....not a good idea. Now she decided to cry. She quit and it was time to go back to the hotel. She was fine on the ride home and was very quiet and reserved. She found here fingers and was very content with them. They have obviously been comforting to her in the last 13 1/2 months.
When we arrive back at the hotel we sat on the bed and she was content. She rolled over and I started singing "I love you" in Chinese to a tune and Barry joined in. She laid down and fell asleep and took almost a two hour nap. After waking she was a little uncertain, but ate some congee with some friends and loved it. Congee is like thin rice with water or porridge and has some meat flavoring to it. Later that afternoon we played in the hall in front of the elevators with her friends. This is where we started to see the real Anna. She was crawling everywhere and taking a few steps. Eventually all of the families arrived, as did the Assistant Director of the SWI. We were able to ask her some questions. She said that all of the babies were able to crawl and also walk a little with assistance. We were so blessed that our girls came from this SWI. They were taken very good care of and are doing well developmentally. We have gotten so close to all of the families and knew them all before we traveled. All of the babies are beautiful and have the most precious eyes. We called the boys later on and told them that they were both now big brothers. It was so nice to hear their voices and we miss them a lot. We went out for dinner next door to the hotel, but Anna would not eat. She hasn't taken a bottle yet and has only eaten congee, but we are so glad that she ate that. Please pray for us that she will continue to bond well with us and eat more soon.
God has blessed us so much already with Anna and we are so glad that this day has finally come. She has done a little bit of grieving today and that is normal, but overall she has done great. I never imagined that she would try to eat congee today or crawl and try to walk. She is very tiny.!We think that the scale here says between 17-18 pounds, but I wouldn't be surprised if she is smaller. Her 6-12 month pants today fit in the length pretty good, but fall off of her. She has no bottom and is so tiny around, so she can't keep her pants up. She seems tall because I put on 6-9 month pajamas and they were big on her, but too short. The 12 month were ok, but big. Thanks for all of your support and prayers. We have enjoyed the emails, so keep them coming. We won't be able to reply to most of them, but love getting them.
Now as I look at this sweet angel asleep on her daddy's chest, I feel so blessed by God to be the wife of Barry and mother of three beautiful children. I am so grateful to Barry's sister and her husband for persisting that their daughter Faith had a cousin waiting for her in China. It will be such a pleasure to see the two cousins born in China play and grow up around each other. I am also thankful to Logan for putting a baby sister on his Christmas list in 2003! Thanks for all of the prayers and to all of you who are helping with the boys at home.
Jennifer
