The Drinkwater Family

And then there were four…. :)


It is amazing what the body can do without sleep – It is even more amazing the command the same body has on you when it is going to shut down…. :) What may be perceived as being lax on updating the blog (Hi Kim :)…) is really more like jet lag, juggling, and Jumanji all thrown together at once.

We arrived safe and sound in Taiyuan after our 4:00am start – only a one hour flight this time around in-country which was nice because it gave us a little bit of family nap time in the morning before we headed off to meet Mary. Got to enjoy some of the local traffic on the way to the government office to receive Mary – Surprisingly only one pedestrian bounced off the van during rush hour… :) Anyone who says the Chinese cannot drive have absolutely not seen what the traffic is like here. Heck, even the “accidents” that we have seen have no visible damage to the vehicles… Nothing compared to home, where you can count on something getting crushed… But I digress… :)

We waited in the government office for about 20 minutes before Mary arrived – Filling out all the requisite paperwork and such and then whoosh…. In come three babies with nannies (there were two other families there receiving children btw)… and there we have our Baby DanDan – Leopard print pants and all :) So, here are some of the first pics of all the girls together – Sylvie was a bit out of sorts for a bit, but did fall back into her caring ways with back rubs for baby to make sure everything was OK. The paperwork continued for about 20 more minutes and then we were “done”… The actual adoption does not take place until tomorrow (Tuesday).


We came back to the hotel and ordered room service for dinner. Baby Dan Dan was happy to eat noodles for dinner and accepted any food we offered her (cherrios, crackers). We are still trying to figure out how to get her to drink a bit more fluids. We brought bottles, Nuby soft tip sippy cups and a couple other type sippy cups. We cut the hole bigger in the nipple of her bottle and by pushing on the bottle liner we seem to be able to get her to drink a little bit. She definitely knows how to use the bottle and sippy cup, it just takes her quite a while to drink a little bit. Her palate is definitely intact, but her bilateral cleft seems to be giving her a bit of a challenge trying to chew on the nipple.

We spent the evening hanging out on the bed together getting to know each other. Baby Dan Dan has been very quiet all evening, she has not cried once. Actually, none of the babies brought to the Adoption affairs office cried at all during our time there. She did have one little giggle with Sylvie, where her face all scrunched up and she kicked her feet on the bed alongside Sylvie. It was heartwarming to see this, even if it was for a brief glimpse, hopefully tomorrow she will open up a little more.

**Quick update, Baby Dan Dan sleep all through the night, from 7:30 until 6:30 this morning when we woke her up to go and get some breakfast. The same cannot be said Sylvie and Daddy, who were awake at 3:30 this morning (thank you jet lag).