OK, here she is!

Lance and I and our beautiful daughter with the orphanage director (right) and another official a few hours after placement.

All 10 babies placed with families in our travel group wore these bright, poofy cold weather outfits. Here is Ba Shu Ting waiting in the wings, less than a minute before she was placed in my arms.And here's how it happened. I could barely tell how big she was because it felt like I was holding a big pillow.

Lance put his camera down after that, so we'll have to wait to receive photos from other members of our travel group. We all agreed to photograph each others' placements and share, because it was a bit of a chaotic scene over at the Civil Affairs Office Monday morning.


This isn't the best photo of Lance, but I'm including it because he's showing the ID our daughter was wearing when we got her. Plus, it's one of the earliest photos of him holding her.

After a little nap on the bus back to the hotel, little Ting Ting was wide awake for the rest of the day. I had the fun of changing my first diaper and fixing my first bottle of formula. Under her poufy outfit, Ting Ting was wearing pink Teletubbies PJs. We didn't put her pants back on her because they were soaked, but we kept her in the shirt until Tuesday morning.


I gave my daughter the first bottle. It has been non-stop eating ever since! Lance won her over with Cheerios, and I also found fruit paste a the local Wal-mart,

Today (tuesday) we completed the adoption at the Civil Affairs office, so Rachel officially is our daughter. I'll write about that (and more about placement day) when I can keep my eyes open.

Thanks for all the good thoughts! I promise better photos soon.