Five years? Really? Five years ago today at 5:30pm in a dingy little civil affairs office in the city of Xi'an, I got to hold a 27-pound bundle of sweating, screaming, crying, squirming energy that was to be Helaina Marie.
We had arrived in Xi'an the night before and mercifully had the following day to catch up a little, get organized a little, get our money exchanged and visit a park just down the street from our hotel. Above pic shows the wall that surrounds Xi'an city.
It was nice having a park so close to the hotel. We took many walks to this park pushing Helaina in her spiffy orange and blue Chinese stroller (which we still have, even though it's in horrible shape - I can't bear to part with it).
On our way to the grocery store near our hotel to stock up on drinking water. It was always an adventure going to the store but eventually we got really good with the Chinese currency (yuan?) We bought mostly bottled drinks. Even though we were told it was "safe" to drink the faucet water after we boiled it in the kettle in our hotel room, I still wouldn't drink it. We used the boiled water to brush teeth and rinse out a few things.
Ahhh, precious cargo. Men Ying arrived with her nanny in a van about 30 minutes later than expected - stuck in traffic, what a surprise. She had fallen asleep on the way and she was sweaty, disoriented, most likely hungry and probably wondering "what the heck?"
I held her first - just had to, couldn't wait. After a while I passed her off to her new Daddy. She's clinging to the panda bear we sent her for her 2nd birthday and a lollipop her nanny gave her to try and calm her down (didn't work).
She eventually calmed down a little and then totally in the van. She liked riding in the van and looking out the window. Still clutching the panda and lollipop! Must have been somewhat comforting to have things she was used to in such an upsetting situation to her.
After we got back to the hotel room I changed her diaper, got her cleaned up a bit and headed right to dinner. All her paperwork (and the size of her thighs!) indicated that she liked to eat so we figured it would be a good way to hopefully make her feel comfortable. We were right.
She loved her bath (just like her paperwork said). As I was running the water Helaina was standing right next to me. She knew what to do. She started to rip at her clothing and lift her leg over the side to get in. She absolutely loved the stacking cups we brought from home. Filled them with water and watched it run out for a long time.
Finally fed, clean and sporting her blue jammies.
We decided to take her for a stroll around the hotel. We quickly learned that she liked to have one thing in each hand. Didn't matter what it was - sippy cup, lotion bottle, flashlight, phone, lollipop, ball - as long as she had something to hold in both hands, she was good to go. What I remember the most (and what I'll never forget) happened when we left our room to go for our walk. Helaina had her pink sippy cup in one hand and a small lotion bottle in the other. She stopped walking, put the cup in the same hand as the lotion bottle and reached up to hold my hand. I get choked up now just thinking about it. I knew at that moment things would be ok. We walked up and down the halls and went to the lobby for a while. We almost got a half-smile out of her at one point. She was so stinking sweet, adorable and good natured about things, even though she was totally out of her element and with strangers she had never laid eyes on. We went back to the room after our walk, gave her a small cup of applesauce (big hit) which she fed herself with a plastic spoon and got her ready for bed. After hugging and kissing her to death we put her in her crib, covered her up and didn't hear a peep out of her until the next morning. She slept 9 hours straight, which we didn't think was too bad considering that we had heard some stories about kids who would scream all night and never sleep a wink.
Five years later this is our amazing little gal. Some things haven't changed - she's as feisty as she was the day we met her, she loves to eat(!), she lives to please us and still loves hugs and kisses.
We celebrated our Gotcha Day anniversary with dinner out at Red Lobster (gotta love lobster fest). My mind keeps drifting back to the night we brought little Men Ying into our lives. I gave Helaina extra hugs and kisses tonight as we tucked her into bed. I told her about how we tucked her into her crib in China on that very first night and that we gave her lots of hugs and kisses then too. She flashed me a sleepy smile. Love you, little girl. Glad you're our daughter.
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