Haylee Mei Guihong!!!

Haylee's first cheerios. She loves them! She liked feeding herself and was really good about it. For some reason she doesn't use her thumb on her right hand. Not sure if it because she hasn't practice or what but she does a great job of picking up small objects, even without it.

She likes this binky. She mostly just chews on it but it helps us keep her fingers out of her mouth. She has already has two teeth and another one just coming in.

I thought I might cry but I didn't. I suppose I've cried enough over this process. When I finally held her I just smiled and felt so happy to hold her in my arms. She is so beautiful. The pictures just don't do her justice.

What a day!!! First thing in the morning we had to go exchange money for our orphanage donation at the bank. It was a very interesting experience. We didn't have a guide but so many people here speak English that communication is okay. The highest bank note they have is 100 yuan. There were so many bills that we could barely zip up our money belts. Then we met our guide and headed to the CAB office. I was excited but also surprisingly calm. We went upstairs but Haylee had not arrived yet. Our guide called them and they were stuck in a traffic jam! (Driving here is very interesting but that is another subject). We ended up waiting for about an hour, talking to our guide. Finally the director arrived and we were able to meet our daughter for the first time. The director was holding her and we tried to talk to her but she immediately started to cry. She continued to cry as we attempted to hold and comfort her. But within a few minutes she stopped. She liked the toy keys we brought her. I held her while Kevin and our guide talked to the director getting her schedule, etc. She is so sweet but very reserved. Cordelia took us shopping for diapers, etc. afterwards. Haylee just looked at everything with wide eyes. She was a little nervous but she would only whimper occasionally. Once we got her back to the hotel we gave her more toys while we did paperwork and she just sat on the floor playing. She loves all the toys we bought her and she is very content just playing. We gave her a bath, which scared her at first but then we gave her the stacking cups and she played in the water for awhile. We were all very tired by that point so we took a nap, Haylee laying between us. She loves to suck on her three fingers to soothe herself. It was kind of sad to hear her whimpering a little bit as she was drifting off to sleep. We all slept for about three hours! Much needed rest. We went to Lucy's for dinner and she ate a whole bowl of congee(soft rice) with chicken! She was so good at the restaurant. Another couple that had adopted commented on how well she was doing for this being her first day with us. She looks really good. Her skin is great and she is walking, albeit very shakily. She tolerates my hugs and kisses and goes to both of us equally. Her lip looks great and when she was screaming I got a good look at her palate. She will indeed need to have an operation once we get home but she seems to deal with it very well. She was able to drink out of a normal bottle without any problems. She really likes food, which is great because I love to feed her. She is so wonderful and I have great hope that in the next few days she will warm up to us and show more of her personality. Tomorrow we are taking easy and getting some more much needed rest.