Two years ago today, Doug and I flew from Beijing to Nanchang, China. It was Father's Day. We had just gotten to our hotel room, put some of our things away, and readied some cheerios, stacking cups, and other toys. Twenty minutes later... a small, confused, stoic 15 month old with big brown eyes and a head full of dark hair was carried into our hotel room by a Nanny, along with the orphanage director and another female orphanage employee. Our guide translated a few things about Ji, Lu Ying:
"She already can walk."
"She likes to sleep on her belly."
"They call her Ying Ying."
"This is how you make her bottles...."

She asked a few more questions for us, they left, and just like that.....we were parents.

I'll never forget holding her for the first time...after almost 4 months of staring at her photos. She was solid and perfectly plump. She was beautiful. She was clean, but smelled like sweat and baby powder after traveling almost 4 hours from her orphanage...for possibly the first time since she'd arrived there. I remember finding baby powder caked in her little neck rolls. She had obviously been well taken care of, physically, and for that I will always be grateful. And now, she was ours.

I'll never forget how she looked each one of us up and down. She made no noise. I could see that she was, understandably, confused and a bit nervous....yet she didn't cry. It broke my heart a little to know that this 15 month old already seemed so well practiced in holding back tears and putting on a brave face. I later found out the character for her name "Ying", actually means "Brave".

We were absolutely in love. We did everything we could to break the ice...but it wasn't until the next morning that we got our first smiles from her. Along with the smiles..some real tears finally came. This told us that she was getting comfortable with us. Soon we saw some real personality shining through. She was spunky, smart, silly, sweet, and strong. She also had a serious and shy side. We spent so much time sitting on our big hotel bed with toys and snacks spread around, just playing and getting to know each other. I'll never forget how she would be happily playing and in the next moment, she would get this sad, scared look on her little face. She would heave a little sigh and her body would give a little shudder...then she'd reach up to me for a little hug, and she'd go on playing and babbling for a while. She bonded with me first, and did so fiercely.. but she played happily with her Daddy and seemed to adore him from day one. He just wasn't able to hold her much for the first week without tears. Before long, though, they were best of friends and have been ever since.










She's grown so much since that day. She's a little girl and not a baby any more. She's still whip-smart, silly, spunky, sweet, and strong, with shy and serious moments. And we love her like crazy. She is truly an answer to prayer...we are so blessed =).

(I had planned a Father's day post, too, but we were hit by more storms and were without power this weekend. Happy Father's Day, Doug...we love you!)