We have her!

Greetings again from Kunming,

Where to begin... oh yeah, we have Kate!

We all met in the lobby of the hotel yesterday, and were driven to what we think was an administration office in a very interesting part of town about 10 minutes from the hotel. I don't know where to begin, other than it was a surreal experience.

We were driven through some alley ways, complete with storefronts offering hanging chickens ready to cook, and pulled into an apartment complex straight from the 1950s. None of us were sure what to expect next, so we just followed the orders of our handlers who told us to climb the stairs to the second floor and go into an office. Up we went and turned the corner into the room and there were 3 babies all in a row on a couch each with someone from the orphanage holding them.

All three families were silent and didn't know what to do next. The three babies were sitting on the couch oblivious to what was happening, and our handler Xiulan (shoe-lan) said Reed, and pointed to Kate.

The person from the orphanage stood up and handed Kate to Jen while I was snapping pictures left and right.

Again, the only way to describe it is surreal.

Jen was holding Kate for some time while Xiulan was looking her over for any illness, rashes or bruises. Kate does have a minor rash on her right cheek, and no one's sure what it is until we get her to a doctor.

Then I got a chance to hold her and I've forgotten what it's like to hold a 10 month old baby compared to carrying Cito. She's light as air, and she was very comfortable with me holding her. The one interesting thing we noticed is that she must have been around men in her foster home, because she didn't like Jen holding her and only wanted me to hold her. She would go into quite a fit when Jen would try and pick her up, but when I held her she was quiet.

Anyway, I think we were at this office for 30 minutes before it was time to go back to the hotel, where we had some lunch, and Kate took a nap (and so did we for 3 hours). I was holding her the whole time through lunch and when it was time for a nap she didn't like being put down and went berserk, so she fell asleep on my chest.

We met the group again for dinner where Xiulan brought us to a restaurant where we had some fantastic food that's nothing like the restaurants back home. I think my cholesterol shot up a few points.

After dinner we went for a walk a few blocks down from the hotel to a big square where we watched about 30 people in a huge circle who were dancing to some music. It was like a community dance where any one could join in and follow along. Believe me I was tempted but Jen held me back.

Then a really weird thing happened. While Jen and I were watching the dancing, some people started coming up to us talking to Kate and I assume were saying how cute she was (we couldn't understand what they were saying, but a lot of the women were cooing over her), and then they started grabbing at her to take her out of the stroller. All of a sudden there were at least 20 people surrounding us all wanting to talk to us and look at her. I should have charged admission, but I started to get a little nervous about the spectacle we were causing and Kate was going a bit bonkers, so we moved on. Maybe the had never seen a western couple with a baby before?

Kate slept through the night, again after falling asleep on my chest, and this morning we met the other two groups for a ride back to the administration office where we signed some more papers to make the adoption official. Kate was crawling all over the place and I think she'll be walking in no time.

We then drove to what I think was passport office where she had her picture taken and started the paperwork to allow her to leave the country.

We're back at the hotel now, and Kate's asleep in the room. We don't have web access in our room, so I'm in the business center typing this and I forgot my camera to upload the pictures. I'll do that in the next post.

Some observations:
- Driving here is total (and I mean TOTAL) chaos. Electric donkeys and bicycles rule the road and cars are secondary.
- Bike helmets aren't a thought here when riding a bike, and the bikes are used for utility. Nothing fancy, just transportation from one point to the next.
- No kiddie car seats. Kate was in my arms for any of the trips we've done in the car.
- It's very warm, so we've dressed Kate in some light clothes and let her roam around in bare feet. Everyone we've seen says she must be cold and needs shoes, while she's sweating profusely. Go figure.
- The people here are very nice, though they stare at us quite a bit.

That's all for now. I'll have the pictures posted later today.

Thanks for reading.