LEXIE'S HERE!!

Hey ya'll! I'm soooooooooooooooo soooooooooooooooooo sorry I didn't have time to write last night. I feel really bad. It's just so crazy because Lexie's here! I'll start off from yesterday and get to well, right now (12:00 here!)

Yesterday we had to fly from Beijing to Nanchang where the babies were. Nanchang is even poorer than Beijing. The buildings are even more crowded and messy. But every body's so happy here! I love it in China because every one's just so nice! Anyway, Nanchang also smells worse. There is so much smog that I could feel it even on the plain ride here. On the airplane, you could see large fields and then crowded cities. The farms are the poorest places and everything is done by hand. Nanchang is your typical vision of China. It is poor, crowded messy buildings, farms with small houses, faded colors of red and gold, some ancient buildings, and just- oldish. I mean, you see people walking down the street holding to large cows on a rope and people with bikes with large buggies on the back of them filled with vegetables. The reason it is so smoggy here is because everything is done by hand, including the heating. There isn't electricity here (or it is too expensive) so everyone burns coal. Blah! It's so hard to breathe! -lol!

Anyway, I do like Nanchang because it is a mixture of everything- culture, cities, farms, and small people (down south the people are shorter). It is a very nice place with very nice people.

After we got off the plane,a lady named Lisa was there to meet us. We rode in a bus for about 1 1/2 hours (I think!!) She told us that Nanchang was known for 3 things- hot weather, hot food, and hot girls. When she said hot girls I just burst out laughing. I thought she was kidding but then she explained. 'Hot' girls just meant that they had a big temper and when we met Lexie we totally understood. In Nanchang it is hot all year round. Today I think it was about 80 degrees. People here love their food hot and spicy! I know I'll starve here-lol!

When we got off the bus you could feel the anticipation. The whole day I hadn't been able to wipe a smile off my face. I could feel my chest tightening. My heart was like beating in my throat-lol! We had about 2 hours (or so) to get ready. But I still couldn't stop looking out the window. I saw a car pull up and I just knew it was them. I kept saying, "Their here! The babies are hear!" But they still wouldn't let us go see them until 4:30. I was soooooooo excited! I tried to hold my excitement in but it was just a worthless effort! I just wanted to get her!

Ok, before I tell you about Gotcha Day - when you get the babies- I have to say this. Gotcha Day IS NOT FUN and they tell you this before you go. The babies will cry and cry and cry. Wouldn't you?? Sometimes they won't even speak to you and can possibly even go through a depression. Ahh! It is VERY NORMAL for them to cry. If they don't cry- that usually means that they will go through a depression or a state of denial or something... bad. Ok, that;s all I have to say.

When we arrived in the second floor, they told us that we were going to meet our babies individually. They would call our names and they would hand the babies to us. We were all soo excited and anxious!

"William, Kerri," said Lisa. We walked forward and saw her. She was TERRIFIED. She obviously didn't want anything to do with us. She was sobbing her head off. My heart was being ripped apart. She was sooo adorable and I just wanted to hold her but my parents hogged her. She was so scared and confused and she just cried and cried. We didn't really know what to do. Plus, she was terrified of me. She would start crying harder if I held her. She really liked my dad though. That doesn't mean she stopped crying she just calmed down a little bit and he wouldn't let her go (HOG!!)

Lexie smelled horrible. She stenched of urine and she wore about 4 layers of clothes. All of the babies in the room were sweating tremendously. Lexie was the loudest in the room and the smelliest in the room. She then started pointing while crying. I looked around and gave her her shoes. She grabbed them and held them as tightly as she could. She wouldn't let us touch them.

We carried her up to our room on the elevator. She was still crying hysterically. My mom said, "Ok, time for a bath." We took off her clothes (which she was very reluctant to do. She loved the bath though. She didn't smile or anything (they told us they wouldn't smile for about 3 days minimum) but she played with the bath toys and stop crying. After a while, when she was done, she didn't want to come out!

We dressed her in warm clothes and placed her down near her toys. She didn't cry when I came near her which was an improvement. We all sat down and watched her. She looked around at us carefully questioning whether to trust us or not. I then gave her a little panda bear and she grabbed it right up. She clung to it for her life and kept staring around at us.

After a while, she put her hands out and held the bear out to my dad. My dad took it and she clasped her hands together (we think in a attempted clap.) My dad held it back out to her and she took it. She did this a couple more times before we showed her the rest of the toys. She loved music and we handed her a toy that if you press a button, it sings. When the music played, I started dancing and when it would stop, I stopped. She thought this was very enjoyable but still wouldn't smile.

Lexie stopped clicking her little toy and all of a sudden plopped down into my dad's lap. It was so cute! I loved it! It was the first moment of trust (besides the bear thing but... whatever)

Then she grabbed the bear again. She held it out to me. I took it, kissed it, and gave it back. She held it out to me again and I did the same. She took it back and then she gave the bear a kiss! I laughed. Then, Lexie did the impossible, she smiled. Just a little bitty smile and only half of her mouth went up, but it was a smile. After that, smiling was no problem, she even smiled at Me!

We soon noticed that Lexie was a very hungry baby. We held Cheerios out to her and she ate them in a second. We had to hide them from her but she would point to where they use to be and go,"aaaa".

Lexie was very curious. She walked around and pointed at things. She did this for a long time. She explored for a little bit and then went back into the room where we were at. My Dad, who was in the room with us, was sort of being stupid and plopped his head down on the bed, pretending to be dead. Lexie giggled. We stopped and looked at her and she was grinning. My Dad did it again. She laughed. Again. She cracked up. It was the moment of truth! SHE LAUGHED! We were thrilled.

That's when Lexie's true personality started to come out. She was a spoiled brat!-lol!! She was also a neat freak. Whenever she stopped playing with one of the toys, she'd put it back. She also "put lots of other stuff away"-lol! She was soooooo cute! She was also a little brat. She was testing the rules and touching EVERYTHING! She pointed and grunted (not a caveman grunt just a 'aa!' grunt) and would pull things down(then try to put them back). She ran around and touched different stuff and was even bossy. But she was so adorable!!

We all played different games with her to make her laugh. In about 20 minutes she couldn't stop laughing. We were all having so much fun and we were so happy that she was happy. Her laugh was so cute, it was like a big giggle that made all of us crack up. She was so happy and was walking around and everything.

My Mom had to go sign forms and go to a meeting on the second floor (which is where we got the babies) so me and my dad had to watch over her. This was no easy task. She was handful and always getting into trouble. She kicked the door when she wanted to go outside so I walked up and down the halls with her. She was running and laughing and my heart just melted. My Dad ordered room service and we fed her rice, which she just shoved in her mouth. She also drank a bottle full of room temperature milk.

While my dad and I were playing with her she finally warmed up to me more. It took her some time but she did. She went up to me and gave me a big kiss and say "Muah!" after it. I laughed and kissed her back and she was off like a bullet running and laughing.

Then it was my Dad's turn to go downstairs. My mom and I took Lexie down stairs in the stroller that she obviously like more to push it than to ride in it. In the elevator, she started crying and fingering the doors. She hated the elevator and my mom comforted her. When we were downstairs I pushed her around in the stroller. She leaned forward when I was pushing and would scoot forward when I stopped or would look backwards and hit the seat. Brat!-lol! She was so bossy.

Me and my mom started to play peek-a-boo with her. She was cracking up!! She then started to copy us and then put her hand on my eyes and did it for me. My mom decided to call Katie and walked away. "Mama!" she called and smiled. Mama! Oh My Gosh!! No way!-I was thinking. Ok, first of all, they aren't supposed to smile nevertheless LAUGH! until like the 3rd day. Now she called her Mama! My Mom came running back and Lexie laughed. We were so excited. "Mama!" she laughed. We were all laughing. It was adorable and we were so glad that she trusted us. "Jeje," I said and pointed to my self. That means older sister in Chinese. She didn't repeat it until later, but it sounded more like,"dede." We new it wasn't dada because baba is dad in Chinese (in a different tone it can also mean poop! lol!)

When we were back in the room, Lexie picked up the remote and started to point it towards the TV. She pointed and looked around. We turned on the TV and clapped-ish. We followed her around and made sure she didn't get into trouble before it was time for bedtime.

They told us that bedtime is the hardest because they begin to remember their foster mom and everything. This was very, very true because when we tried to put her to bed she started balling. You could tell she was trying to be brave and not cry. She did this a lot and held her breathe with a big frown on. It only lasted so long before she started crying again. We finally decided that she would sleep in the bed with my mom and I. She fell asleep finally, still wiping away her silent tears. I fell asleep to but my mom didn't.

In the middle of the night, I heard crying again. My mom rocked her back and forth and turned the TV on for her to hear familiar sounds. It only made her cry harder. We finally got her back to sleep but it was really hard to watch her cry. It just breaks your heart into pieces. It is so sad it is unexplainable. She was so brave to trust us.

After a while I felt something on my face. I opened my eyes and Lexie put her feet, on my face. She was a really restless sleeper and kept tossing and turning, trying to get comfortable and I guess that she had. She later moved, thankfully. We finally got some rest and she slept soundly for the rest of the night. I was happy that she's got all of her tears out of her system, or I hoped.

Ok ya'll that's the first day with Lexie and I should describe today but I've been typing for an hour so I'm gonna type what happened today, tonight.

Before I go, I keep forgetting to mention this. We call her ChiChi- ya, it means boob in spanish. But her name is Yun Chi and she doesn't respond to Lexie yet. Also, if you go on You-Tube, I put some videos on there, check them out ok! Day1LexNan (ok, I have a really really weird laugh here and I don't know why, she also didn't like my her either) and- chinese man at temple of heaven (this was when the guys was throwing the ring and I had to catch them on my head). There is another video on the way so I'll tell you later! Bye!

Ok, nevermind, the vidoe that I was going to upload just shut off soo... I'll tyr again but check the other ones! Bye!