In China
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Monday, November 10, 2008 WE GOT VIVI HUA HUA! We started out our morning very early, we got up at 4:30 and hopped a plane to Guangzhou. Once we got to Guangzhou we had to gather paperwork and a short list of things and at 2:30 PM we were off to meet our daughter. When we got to the Civil Affairs office, there were dozens of other families getting their children. It was crazy, some people were all smiles and full of joy and laughter taking pictures of their new child, some were standing around anxious waiting for their name to be called so they then would be presented their child and some were walking their crying child around trying to console them. Once our name was called here comes Vivi Jo, she is very calm but obviously very nervous and scared. We talked to her and she repeated us when we told her that we were her Mama and Baba, what joy it brought to our hearts to hear her say those words to us. As we were all sitting on the floor with her we gave her the items that were in her backpack and her favorite thing was the Magna Doodle. She was so nervous and had no expression on her face. We were told by our guide to go and sit on the sofas and get to know our daughter, when we all got up and helped her up to move over to the sofas she realized that the nanny that brought her to us was not there anymore and she lost it! I think she realized what was happening and went out of control. She was screaming for her Mama, our guide said that apparently there was either her nanny or her foster care mom that she really attached to and referred to her as Mama, My heart was breaking in to pieces, not for me but for her, although we will give her a wonderful life, all she knows and has known was at that moment being stripped totally away from her. I thought about was how Max would react if he were taken away from me. Hua Hua was in extreme pain and her heart was broken completely into. She fell out in the Civil Affairs office kicking and screaming her little arms were swinging all over the place while we was screaming Mama….Mama….Mama, then she started saying other words in Chinese along with the word Mama, my guide said that she was saying,” I want to go home to my Mama”, we took her outside in hopes it would calm her down and our guide also talked to her trying to settle her and nothing at all worked. I held her in my arms close to me while we was crying, screaming and pleading to go home. Paul also held her, she let Paul hold her but the fit did not cease. The other family in our group and our guide came out and we were ready to head back to the hotel and he tells us that he was just told that she has very bad motion sickness. All the way back to the hotel she is sitting in Paul’s lap still wailing and once the van stops she starts throwing up. Paul and I decide that we are not going to dinner with our group and our guide, that we all need to stay in the hotel room and try to keep it as peaceful and quiet as possible. Once we got in the room she sees the blinds open and she goes to the window and points outside wailing wanting to go home and continues screaming for her Mama. Her crying and screaming lasted over an hour at the hotel. Max was so worried about her, he kept saying Vivi doesn’t feel good she is sad. During this whole thing, if I was holding her then Paul was holding Max close and when Paul was holding her I was holding Max loving on him. Max and Dada left the room for a little bit and I decide to put Hua Hua in the bathtub and she loved it. It calmed her down and I even got a small smile from her . We got out of the tub and started getting her dressed and fixed her hair with a bow and she LOVES bows! For about 20 minutes after she was dressed she was happy and content and then all of a sudden she started it all over again, but it didn’t last long. I pulled our the magic markers and coloring books and she settled down. I soon started seeing smiles and I would do silly things and she started to even giggle. I gave her a box of raisins and Max got the Cheerios out and she loved them both. She loved transferring the Cheerios and raisin mixture from box to cup to Cheerio holder. She starts sharing them with me and I act like I am going to eat her hand and she started giggling. Vivi, Max and I sat on the floor doing silly stuff while Paul went out on the Island to bring food back to the hotel. By the time Paul came back she was giggling up a storm. She even went to the window and it was just starting to get dark outside and I started waving saying HELLO and she thought it was funny and started doing that herself.

Paul brought back noodles and I was shocked how much food she ate. She ate Cheerios, raisins, chips, vanilla wafers, a couple of prunes, more cheerios and raisins, she would not let the cheerios and raisin container out of her sight and constantly had it in her hand, she is sleeping with it on her table right beside her, she ate all of her noodles and then more raisins and cheerios until I brushed her teeth before bed. She has obviously never been able to eat as much food as she wants. When it was bedtime Max crawled into bed and she laid on the floor next to the bed. I patted the bed and ask her if she wanted to get in bed with us and she pointed to the floor. I got a book and started reading it and she decided she would get in the bed for the book and decided to sleep by me but before she would lay down she wanted all of her things in bed with her,the sheep that she brought with her the orphanage along with the items we gave her in the back pack. And Kristi she loves her bracelet and she is sleeping with it on. Before bath time Paul and I decided that we needed to go out of the hotel room with her and then come back in a little bit so we decided to take them to the playroom and she and Max loved playing in there together and she was full of giggles the entire time. She started calling me Mama and Paul Baba and she loves the picture book I made for her which she is sleeping with that too. She likes going through each picture and she wants me to tell her again and again who they are. She even kissed Britney’s photo on her own with out any prompting from me. When we got back from the playroom I decided to let Max and Vivi take a bubble bath together and they both had a ball and both were full of laughter. It really is good that she is grieving. I realize that tomorrow morning when she wakes up might be some of the same but we will just hold her close and be there for her and love her through it…..she will get through this! We saw so much progress in her through out the day and she was very happy and playful before bedtime. We saw today that she is able to attach to someone and that is wonderful! Max is so precious, I helped Vivi pull off a tag on a stuffed animal (which she is also sleeping with….the tag) she was pulling one way and I was pulling the other and it was really funny to her when it snapped and Max said, that’s good Vivi you are a good helper. He made be the little brother but he has a BIG brother heart! I am so tired tonight that I am only going to post the 6 photos that I can post on this website and I will add more to my Shutterfly tomorrow. I really am sorry but I will get them up tomorrow. I love you all and PLEASE keep us all in your prayers. Kim

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