Reality is settling in

It's been a few days now since we found out about our baby and reality is starting to settle in...

John fell in love with XinMei within a few hours but it took me closer to a day to really get to the point where I didn't feel like I was looking at a photo of someone else's baby but of our baby. I wonder how long it will take for her to connect to us?

We now have 2 months to fantasize about what she's like before the reality of meeting her in May. I hope our fantasy isn't too far away from reality.

In the mean time, we've been thinking about what needs to be done before we travel: Name her!, finish renovating the back of the house, finish replacing the rear balcony, apply for travel VISA's, travel planning, immigration documents, citizenship planning, medical review documents, pack, install the car seat, pull things out of storage (strollers, clothes, toys, high-chairs, etc) and do LOTS of shopping (clothes, bottles, medical supplies, etc). That's just the high-level planning list! There is SOOO much to do...

Thanks to my net-saavy sister, I am now part of some chat groups of other parents who have/are adopting from the same orphanage as we are. It's great to be able to find that connection, even if it's little. I've been able to get advice on how the babies are handled at that location, how they're fed, see photos of the inside of the Orphanage (called SWI-Social Welfare Institutes in China) and of places to see while we're there. I'll be posting the photos on the blog site soon.

Unfortunately, our SWI was affected by the tainted formula so we'll have to review her medical files carefully and pay attention to related issues in the future. It'll be 2 more weeks before we get her translated medical file so there's not much we can do until then.

Now, on to the shopping....
Christine