Mei-Mei is with us!

This is Tim writing..We have MeiLi! It was a very emotional day for all of us and the other families. MeiLi is now calm in the hotel room. She is accepting food and drink, and is playing well with Karah. She does not speak Mandarin or understand it. She has been saying a few words in her own dialect which is called "Mile" (mee-lay). We met the orphanage director and the nanny who has been taking care of MeiLi. They told us that MeiLi was actually an orphanage child but the nanny took her home with her at night and was her foster mother. We have no smiles yet but she seems to be settling in fine. I can't really describe how I feel, finally being able to hold her and kiss her cheeks. I'm letting Mary do the initial bonding right now so I will put up more photos later. Words just can't describe this. Thank you Lord that everything has come together for our daughter to finally be with us.

We are getting ready to go to sleep tonight. We had an interesting jaunt down the street to a 3 story Walmart. The first floor was mainly raw meats and vegetables and if you have ever been in an Asian Market you would understand that it was stomach turning. The second level was dry groceries which wasn't too bad and the top was regular household and clothing sort of stuff. It really didn't have as much as I had expected. I was able to buy the girls sweaters (since our baggage was too heavy before). And we got another suitcase to bring some souvenirs home. It was a job to get to the store and back again. The road was threatening and so we had to walk down to an underpass to get there... it was like spokes of a wheel so we had to keep peeking up to the top to see if we were at the right street... we did finally made it back, and ordered room service... then Karah fell asleep... so I guess hers goes into the frig. Tomorrow is the BIG day and we have already been warned that it will be fast and long. I guess that since two areas are coming from a long ways away, they have to get it all done tomorrow and get back. So we had better get to sleep like Karah so we will be ready for it. -Mary

Karah Climbed the Great Wall!

We arrived in Kunming. We are now in our room at the Grand Park hotel.

I'm feeling quite stressed at the moment for several reasons that I will not go into but everything is OK with us. Tomorrow is our forever family day when we meet MeiLi!