Today we adopted Hannah! What a cute and precious little girl the Lord has blessed us with. Please keep her in your prayers as she continues to get to know us and adjust to living with us.
Buckle your seat belts, this is a long post ...
Meeting Hannah went extraordinarily well today. Deanna and I were both a bit nervous. We had been up since 4AM (Hello, jet lag!), trying not think too much about what was soon going to take place. We filled our time with eating breakfast, getting ready, making photocopies, writing Hannah a letter, and even napping. At 11AM, our phone rang, The voice on the other end said, "You can come down now. Your daughter has arrived." Nervous energy continued to build as we checked our bags and then went down in the elevator.
Our initial fears were relieved as soon as we walked into the back lobby and saw our little girl. There she was, dressed in a brand-new, adorable outfit with a big smile on her face. I decided to sit on the couch next to her and gingerly tried to pick her up. I was expecting the stiff-as-a-board reaction kids give when they don't want to be picked up. Instead, Hannah gave no resistance and sat nicely on my lap. She never once called out for the orphanage staff or tried to squirm away.
We soon went to work with the parent top secret trick #1: toys. The first toy out of the bag was a Ni Hao Kai-Lan doll we had purchased months ago. The doll looks silly with a really big head, tiny arms, and tiny feet. Hannah didn't know what to think of it at first, but soon grew to like it. We had fun giving the doll back and forth, throwing it, and retrieving it. Each time Hannah got down, she would always come back and sit on my lap. During this time we got to hear her laugh many times and even say some words.
We followed this up with top secret trick #2: food. Hannah's first American food consisted of some water in a spill-proof cup and puffs in a spill-proof bowl. I got to hand feed her the first puff. Surprisingly, she wanted me to hand feed her all of her puffs. She seemed to suck on them rather than chew them.
While I continued to play with Hannah, Deanna was presented with a gift from the orphanage. They had provided us a porcelain tea set. What a beautiful gift! Apparently Jiangxi province is known for porcelain and it was something on the top of our buy list. Next, Deanna got work on filling out paperwork and started signatures and thumbprints.
Finally, when all of the paperwork was done, it was time for the orphanage staff to leave and go have lunch. Off they went with only a few words to Hannah. I was expecting an utter melt-down at this point, but she seemed to fine. A few minutes later, our guide Lisa left to go have lunch, too.
So there we were, all alone in the hotel lobby, with our daughter at our side. This now would be the true test. We had two hours until our next appointment. For the next two hours she would be under our care. We would have no one to translate for us. No familiar people. Just us in our hotel room. Honestly, I'm not sure which one of us was more scared at this point.
When we got in the room, Hannah did OK at first. We showed her around, let her look at her crib, and then played with her on the bed. She also enjoyed playing with stickers. In a little bit, Deanna tried making her noodles while Matt ordered a burger from the room service menu. Deanna fed her the first bite of noodles and Hannah had a large smile on her face. I quickly grabbed the camera and tried to capture the moment. By the next bite, however, the smile had gone away. There she sat on Deanna's lap, mouth full of food, stone-faced. She sat that way for a while, and then tiny tears started to form.
At first, we were nervous that she was choking on the food or couldn't breathe. We gave it a minute and then a minute more. OK, she was at least breathing. Something about eating was making this little girl very sad. Oddly enough, eating was the one thing we have been told time and time again that Hannah likes to do. Next, I tried holding her on my lap to see if that would help. Maybe she didn't like the food. "Do you want a french fry?" "No," she said by spitting it out. "Do you want some of this odd-tasting Chinese hamburger?" No again. "Do you want to try some of the bun?" This time she said "Yes" by sucking on the bread and swallowing it.
Before long she was back to eating the noodles. Apparently her sadness had left for a bit, because she went to work on her noodle bowl. I started by cutting the noodles small with the spoon and then feeding them to her. Before long, she wanted to feed herself. Within no time, the cup of noodles was almost gone and so was our time. We headed down to the lobby and started the next leg of our journey.
The rest of the day went fairly well. We had to walk across the street in the rain, avoiding puddles and on-coming traffic. I had Hannah in one arm and an umbrella in the other. Somehow the Lord delivered us safely to the other side. At the Civil Affairs office, Hannah enjoyed playing with the magna-doodle Deanna had brought while we waited for the paperwork and payment to be finalized. The process there was similar to Micah's process with the following exceptions: (1) much nicer office, (2) much nicer people, (3) a smoother process, and (4) no "picture taking ceremony". Overall, it was a very easy time and we were thankful for that.
The orphanage staff that brought Hannah to Nanchang. The woman in the pink gave Hannah her name. "Wu" is for the county that she was found. "Xi" means "hope." They wanted her to have a life of HOPE!
Officially Hannah Wuxi Marquette!
After this, we traveled across the bridge to the new side of town to visit the passport office. Hannah fell asleep on my lap. What a joy it is to see a sleeping child! We were in and out of that office in under 5 minutes time. Then, back in the car and over to the Notary. The Notary was only a 10 minute process. Finally, we arrived back at our hotel with our daughter was now legally ours. Yay!
Our night consisted of a long afternoon nap, WeChat with Carly and the kids, Papa John's pizza, trying to get Hannah to eat something, Hannah's first bath, and then all of us passing out around 10 PM. Bedtime went remarkably well ... no tears, no fits, just cuddling up under a blanket listening to mom and dad sing a song in a strange language.
Please pray for Hannah to continue to feel loved, for us as we try to find something that she will like to eat, and for our safety as we travel around Nanchang tomorrow with our guide Lisa.
Here is the rough timeline of events from today:
Up at 4AM, breakfast at 7AM, photocopies at 8:30AM, napped from 9-10AM, met our guide at 10:30AM, back to the room to wait, met Hannah at 11AM, paperwork in the hotel lobby until 11:45AM, back to the room for lunch, Civil Affairs office at 2PM, Passport office at 3PM, Notary at 3:30PM, back to room for a nap from 4-7PM, talking to the family around 8 PM, dinner at 8:30PM, bed at 10PM.
