We have Celia Grace Qianxue!

At 2:30 this afternoon, our guide, Grace, called to tell us that the baby was waiting in the lobby. Amazingly,even though we were on a higher floor, we beat Grace to the lobby. We found the orphanage staff sitting there holding a very cute baby who had no idea what was about to take place. While we waited for Grace to dispense with the formalities, we offered Qianxue cookies and toys, which she was happy to accept. She also poses for the camera when she sees it and makes the cheesiest grin you would ever want to see! Once Grace arrived, things happened quickly. I signed a couple of papers to enter into the "period of harmonious agreement" before I officially sign the adoption papers tomorrow. I guess you might say that we signed her out for the evening. After that, the staff handed her to me and exited quickly as she began to cry and go after them. We went back to the room for about half an hour. By then, she had calmed down so we went out around the corner to have our pictures taken for some documents tomorrow. Of course when she sees a camera she hams it up. Apparently she is quite the commedienne...just what our family needed, another funny girl! She put on a show and had the entire photo shop laughing.

Not including her coat, Celia arrived in 2 shirts, a pull over sweater and a heavy corduroy jacket. She had on 3 layers of pants, some of which were quilted and knitted but all were split pants. Imagine my surprise when I picked her up and her bottom peeked through the opening!

Celia did not want to part with her coat or shoes. She keeps them in sight at all times. That is until we passed a street vendor selling children's shoes and she spyed them. She was ready to trade hers in for an upgrade on the spot! It seems that she knows more than a couple of words. She fully understands Chinese and has what appears to be a conversation with the hotel staff when they speak to her. She took our guide's hand and led her into the gift shop and said something in Chinese to Grace that caused the guide to laugh out loud. Grace told us that she said, "Let's just take a look around." Sounds like a shopper! At dinner, all of the wait staff came over and played with her. They all went to get their cameras, so of course, Celia charmed them all by being silly and flashing movie star grins when asked to pose for a picture. This of course resulted in a large fruit tray being delivered to our room within 15 minutes of leaving the hotel restaurant, complements of the restaurant!

The adjustment has been overwhelming for her, but she is handling it well. We do OK until someone speaks Chinese to her and she wants to leave us and go with them. It always results in another crying attack that breaks your heart. However, she lets me hold her while she cries and hangs on for dear life. By dinner she was happy to tell everyone that I was Mama and did not let me out of her sight the rest of the night. She can identify my mother if we call her Lao Lao (Chinese for grandmother) and Emma and Livvie by name. No amount of bubbles could intice her to take a bath with Em and Liv. That's OK. It can wait until tomorrow. She went to bed without crying. It seems she is potty trained for the most part. Twice she did a little dance and said something in Chinese. When I took her to the bathroom, you might say that she activated on command. You can't beat that! She is eating great--feeds herself, drinks from a cup. Also, all systems are officially a -go, if you get my meaning!

Emma and Olivia are worn out from all of the travel. They did great today. They desperately wanted to play with Celia and touch her, but she prefers to be admired from afar and does not like to share her toys. Olivia found out the hard way that she can pinch really hard. Before they fell asleep they did say that they like her and are happy to have a little sister. By the way, Celia calls herself Mei Mei (May May) which means little sister in Chinese, so apparently someone has been preparing her for this moment. We also found out that the first part of her name-Qian- means heavens. Hmmm...That is the same thing Celia means! We did have some intermittent smiles and giggles this evening, so there is hope for tomorrow.

Now here is what you have been waiting to see... the third pea has finally taken her place in the pod...