Here's Iris!

Here she is! Iris is now part of our family! We met her just after 4pm yesterday, but have been so busy (obviously) that we haven't had a chance to update the blog until now.

Yesterday was a crazy day...we had to be up before 4am to catch a very early flight from Beijing to Nanchang. We arrived in Nanchang in the morning but then found out we wouldn't be meeting the babies until 4pm. This gave us time to get our hotel rooms in order (diaper station, formula station etc) and relax a bit. But for me, there was no relaxing. I was just so anxious for 4pm to come.

At 4pm we all walked to the government building where we were meeting the kids. We were told that the babies would be brought into the room we were waiting in one by one. But when we got to the room there were already some three babies there. One of them was Iris! I just wanted to go grab her, but I knew that we had to hold back until we were invited. And we had to show them our passports before they gave her to us...which felt kind of weird, but I guess they need to make sure that the babies are going to the right people! Finally they hadn't Iris to us and she immediately started bawling! She cried, and I cried, and all the other moms were crying and I even saw a few tears in some of the dad's eyes! It was amazing and a blur and I wish I could go back and watch it all happen!

We left the office within 20 minutes and brought the babies back to our hotel rooms. We didn't leave our room after that. We just hung out with Iris and let her get used to us. For the first few hours she cried a bit and then just let us hold her and stuff, but she definitely wasn't too sure of us. She had a little nap in the sling, had a bottle and some cereal and seemed pretty content, but still no smiles. At around 9pm, after order pizza for room service, Amelia was ready for bed. She came over and gave Iris a huge hug and Iris gave her a BIG smile! It was perfect. After that she didn't stop smiling! She loves bouncing up and down (can't wait to get her into the Jolly Jumper at home) and laughs out loud while she does it. At around 10pm, Amelia was asleep, I was doing some tidying and when I looked over, Dean and Iris were asleep. It was so sweet and so perfect. Dean woke up and put Iris on her bed and we didn't hear a peep out of her until 6am this morning. What a perfect evening!!

Today, we had to do all the paperwork. We spent all morning going from government office to government office to do all the paperwork to make the adoption legal, to get the papers notarized and to get Iris' Chinese passport done. After all the running around we also stopped off at Wal-Mart. Yes, Wal-Mart in Nanchang. It was 4 stories tall. Ick. But we were able to buy a few things that we had forgotten as well as some snacks in case we don't want to go out for all of our meals. It was a hot, yucky morning, but the babies did amazing and so did the older children. Now we are back at the hotel and don't have to do any paperwork for the next day or two. I expect we'll cuddle Iris lots, go swimming at the hotel pool, nap...that's about it.

Everything went so perfect - we are over the moon with Iris. She loves being held and cuddled and reaches out for us when she wants to be picked up. She loves watching Amelia and Amelia has been incredibly patient and understanding.