Day Two with Annabel

Hello again. It's day two with Annabel and oh what a blessing she is to us. She slept all night which made for a great day. Total she slept 10 hours. I heard her stir a couple of times in the middle of the night but then she would start rocking her head on the mattress and she would be asleep again. It is a self soothing technique very common in orphans. It is great that she can fall back asleep but it breaks my heart to think of her self soothing because there was no one there to rock her. We met her nannies today. And believe me they were amazingly loving. But with so many babies and so few nannies they cannot possibly be there for each child when they really need to be loved on. Today both Mark and I agreed that she is starving for affection. She doesn't want anything to do with much of anything except being held and cuddling. When I tell her I love you in Chinese she smiles and puts her head on my shoulders. It is enough to make you melt. Yes I am putty in her hands. She will go to either Mark or I but still seems to favor me for comfort. Today I handed her off a few times even when I really didn't want to only because I want her to learn to get comfort from both of us. And she did fine with that. It's just when given her choice she wants me. She is a great eater. I am only giving her food smashed up right now though because I really am not 100% certain what she is capable of eating with her palate. This afternoon she began to choke on a piece of cherreeos and then made the strangest noises after crying. It almost sounded as though she couldnt get enough air. Of course being the new mom again I was afraid she had a piece stuck somewhere and couldnt get enough oxygen out. She was fine though. She was only trying to catch her breath after being scared. I am still learning her sounds. She has a raspy cry due to the cleft. Cleft babies sometimes have baby teeth growing all over the place in their mouth. When she was giggling tonight Mark saw that she has a tooth way in the back where a tooth should not be. Weird. That's ok. One of the first things were are doing is making our medical appointments when we get home. She will see a great team of Doctors at Children Hospital for all of her future palate and dental procedures. She also has one tooth growing right in the front of her top row. We call her snaggle tooth. haha
Well today Annabel said bye to her nannies. I was so glad she gave lots of hugs and kisses first. I was concerned how she would react when seeing them again. She got very excited and went right to them but when it was time to leave she came right back to me. Thank goodness. But when the housekeeper came in tonight she started to cry a little bit and put her arms out asking her to pick her up. I told her that wasn't her nannie. I am sure she did not understand me but she did calm down. One thing that we cannot figure out is why she is terrified of dolls. She gets so scared when you put a doll near her. Anyone have any ideas why, then let me know. The only thing we can figure is maybe she was jealous when new babies come to the orphanage because they demand so much time from the nannies. I don't know. I hope she grows out of that one.
Today we signed all of the official documents to make Annabel officially ours in the eyes of China. We had to answer some simple questions like why do we want her and how many children we already have and to promise never to abandon her. Of course we passed with flying colors because they handed us some offical documents. Now we just wait until the end of the week to receive our paperwork from the notary and her Visa so she can leave the province. After we gave the nannies their gifts and gifts for the children they gave us a very special gift that I will always treasure. They gave us a zodiac jade necklace with Annabels zodiac the Dog on it. It is very sentimental in China to pass that down to your children. They also gave us a little red velvet container with soil from her home land. I hope to bring her back when she is older for a heritage tour to learn about her heritage. well I am off to bed now. Annabel is a sleep so it is time for us to also take advantage of that time to sleep. Until next time....God Bless, Tamara