All is well....

Yesterday afternoon 13 families paraded into a hot conference room with cameras in hand and emotions running high. Surprisingly enough, I wasn't crying. I was incredibly anxious, especially when we saw the nannies walk by in the hallway carrying all the babies. Finally a Chinese official came in and gave a short speech about her appreciation...I really can't remember a word she said...then she announced that they would bring the babies in according to the orphanage name. When they brought Hannah in we immediately recognized her. She was not crying, but she had that now famous frown planted on her face. They called her Chinese name and we walked forward...can't remember the details, but I know they handed her to me and my heart melted. We had her in our arms...finally.

We remained in this hot, crowded room without chairs for nearly 2 hours. Hannah never once cried. Many of the other babies were not just crying, but all out wailing and screaming. Some were absolutely hysterical. The tension was heavy as parents struggled with screaming babies. Hannah just sat wide eyed and took it all in. She went easily from both me and Matt and didn't seem to mind at all that we were holding her. We were allowed to ask the nanny some questions through our guide, and we asked if we could take a picture of her with Hannah. When Hannah saw her she reached out for her, but still didn't cry. After the picture her nanny bent over and whispered something to Hannah for about one minute and then gave her a hug and kiss and walked off. Hannah still did not cry.

We returned to the hotel room and admittedly I got a little worried because of Hannah's lack of "emotion." I really wanted her to cry...to show me that she was aware of what was happening, that she was scared, that she was grieving in some way. After about 15 minutes of her sitting on the bed looking around and holding a few toys she looked up and her lip started to quiver, her eyes began to water...and she CRIED. Big buckets of tears. She clung to us throughout her crying, but it was obvious she was terrified. After a long stretch of crying (I have no idea how long all of this lasted) she fell asleep in my arms.

After a short nap she woke up crying, but she was easily comforted when one of us picked her up. We tried giving her a bottle, but she would have nothing to do with it. We tried giving her a bath, but she did not like it at all. She was content as long as we held her, but cried if we put her down. Finally, she fell asleep for the night, and slept through the night.

She appears very healthy and developmentally on track. The only thing we noticed that was of concern on her body was her thumb. It looked really puffy and appeared to have some sort of bite and a bump on her knuckle. It didn't look serious, but it looked like it might hurt. Shortly after she fell asleep for the night we looked at her and she was sucking her thumb...really, really hard and loud! She sucked on that thumb all night long. We now realize that the puffiness and the bump is from her sucking her thumb. She only does it when she is sleeping or getting sleepy.

She has been a dream today. She has eaten and played. She is very serious all the time and we have to really work to get a little glimmer of a smile, but she is warming up to us already. She cries, but she is immediately comforted when one of us picks her up. She loves to be held. She loves watching people. And she loves watermelon. We absolutely love her.

Thank you all so much for praying for us and for Hannah. God has certainly answered our prayers and blessed us more than we ever dreamed possible.