Tuesday, July 19

Last night when Kristi started to cry again, she let me pick her up and snuggle (unlike earlier when she pulled away).  We were able to distract her with a bath - I don't think she had ever taken one before!  She loved making bubbles in the water with shampoo (our improvised bubble bath!)  Then she picked up all her toys when we motioned it was time for bed.

Well, this has been a long day!  Kristi started crying when she woke up, but stopped when we got her up to get dressed and eat.  She loves to eat - and likes almost everything!  We left at 8 this morning and just got back around 3.  This morning we had to register the adoption (this took a couple hours), then we had to apply for a passport for Kristi (tons of people), and then we had to notarize the registered adoption paperwork (more wait).  There were two other children (age 18 months and 24 months) also adopted in Tianjin and we went through the day together.  One family was from Indiana and the other from Minnesota.  It was great to have other Americans to talk to during the day - made what would otherwise have been a long and miserable day go much quicker!  Kristi was amazingly patient and she loved the babies!

Well - I was wrong about the size - I put my smallest outfit on Kristi (size 5T) and it was too big.  She is either a 3T or a 4T.  We weighed her and she is around 26 pounds (way too light for a child of almost 7 - Ty weighed that by 12 months!).  We are wondering if it is just malnutrition or if we have something else going on.  Her scoliosis appears to be pretty severe.  She loves to laugh, and continues to be very social.  Although she likes to play with dad (baba) she currently wants momma to take care of her.  Did we mention she is very curious?  She watches us like a hawk!  Today she was handing me snacks and wanting me to count them in English and she would repeat.  This was the first interest she had shown in English.  She brought me the photo album and wanted to go through it today with her a couple of times.  She has Lindsey down, but can't tell Mitch and Ty apart (then again, a lot of people have that problem!) She continues to spend most of her free time coloring.  Tonight we will take it easy and we have tomorrow off.  Tomorrow afternoon Lee wants to take us to Ancient Culture Street.  Things are going well but it is very frustrating to not be able to communicate with her!