T & L's first post!

Hi Everyone, this is Tannis & Lawrence's first post!!!!

We're in our 9th day here in China, and this is our first post!!! We've been keeping in email contact with everyone at home but want to be a part of the group blog, so here's a quick update ... we arrived on the 7th on the same flight as Charlene & Brent in Shanghai, and spent a few days seeing the sites (and walking our butts off!). Everyone else arrived on the 9th and 10th and we flew to Chongqing on the 12th. From the time we landed in Chongqing, it's been a whirlwind!!!

We left our hotel at 9:00 am on Monday Oct. 13th and drove about 2 hours to Dianjiang SWI where our babies are (Amelia & Mitch flew to Nanning) and once we arrived at the orphanage, we all had to pee and there was only one squat pot, so you know how long it took us women to get our business done ... in the meantime, the men were done and were wandering around the ground floor and the nannies and orphanage workers called them into a room. Unknowingly, Wolfgang sits down and they plunk Fei-Fei (Nika) on his lap!!!! All the other men back out the door, knowing they can't experience this without their wives!!!!

There's no dramatic presentation of the babies or any time to gently interact with them on their terms, it's just "here's your baby!" which was probably a good thing for all of us. Most of the babies were quiet and/or asleep and so was Ji Ji until I had her for about 60 seconds and she started wailing, the poor little thing, so cute with her little pigtails. We tried to console her and somehow opened a mooncake she was holding and she instantly quieted down and in a few minutes fell asleep in Lawrence's arms, and stayed that way while we walked to her finding site, took photos, and got back into the van to head for a group lunch.

It's now two days later and it's truly been amazing. We've learned so much about her personality in such a short time, and she seems to be doing well -- eating more, sleeping better and pooping!!!! (She was the first of all the girls to reach that delightful milestone!) She keeps clapping her hand and laughs her head off all the time so I guess we're doing okay so far. : )

I'm going to add some photos to my post (once I figure out how to do it!) ... but there really are a million things to say about the past few days with Ji Ji and our group. All the babies have different personalities and it's been a pleasure to get to know everyone!!!

More later, hopefully tomorrow,
Tannis & Lawrence and baby Ji Ji!!!