Gotcha! Meilin 11-23-09

Today was Gotcha day, that means that we met Meilin for the first time and she is now ours. We arrived at 9 am and she did wonderful. She didn't cry once, and let us hold her right away. She gave Brian kisses and was even smiling a little for us. After we had her for a little bit - 30 mins - We signed the papers with the civil affairs office and notary. We are the only ones in Kunming and Yunnan adopting this week which is really unusual. Since we were the only ones they brought the civil affairs people and notary to the apartment building and we did all of the paper work right there. We were a little nervous of this and we suspected they would try to do this to us, but Meilin looked very healthy and normal. We felt really comfortable signing the papers and then we ran off to the police station to do some more paper work. So now she is officially ours!!!! When we got her she was in about 4 layers of clothing, all very heavy and thick. They all had numbers on them too like some kind of prison inmate system. She also was in two pigtails, she kept trying to pull them out and when she finally did she had a nice afro going on. Jodie promptly wet it down and put in a barrette to help keep her bangs back. It looks like they recently cut her hair in a short bob. In the hotel room we did a few video phone calls with grandmas and grandpas and also Madison and Dalton. After that Meilin was walking all over the place. They said she just learned how to walk and she is a little shaky but she does well. She has been smiling and giggling and having a good time. She also loves to blow bubbles with her tongue. Meigan has been doing well too, a little jealous at times but we expect that. She has been sharing when we ask her too and gives her hugs. Meilin is just a little bit shorter than Meigan and she is actually skinny underneath all of the layers of clothes. She does have a really round face with rosy cheeks, that may be from a runny nose and cough she has. We will try to post some videos of her but I don't know if I can do that from China. We are truly blessed and thank you all for your prayers, thoughts and kind emails. We can't wait to get home so that you can all meet her. Greetings and Love from China
Brian and Jodie