It's a girl!

No pictures yet...they just got back to the hotel. Zhou promised to post some at Zhou's Kids and also email me some. Garry will also email his when he is able. Believe me, NO ONE wants to see her any more than *I* do!

Right now she's smiling at her Daddy and keeps pushing her foot through the crib slats.

I'll try to recount what he just told me...but my mind is swimming...and it's early!

Everything went off right on schedule and they received their babies at 4:30 p.m....which was 3:30 a.m. for us...and God saw to it to wake me up at exactly 3:31 this morning. No big...I actually thanked Him for it. Somehow it made me feel included.

She smiled at him immediately and there were no tears! The director was either unable or not willing to answer many questions so we have basically no information about her time at the orphanage other than what is in her official report. They also would not take the disposable cameras that the parents had purchased. We were told that they would take those back to the orphanage and fill them with photos of the rooms, caretakers etc. and then send them to the families when they were in Guangzhou. (The trip to and from the orphanage is anywhere from 6-8 hours long each way and that would be too stressful for the babies to make yet again. So no orphanage visit this trip.) Zhou said he got the director to agree to take pictures of certain areas and of the caretakers and send them to him which he will share with the families.

She has Billy Idol hair...think style not color! She is tiny, the updated measurements we were given were padded...but we already suspected that! Two bottom teeth just like Hope when she joined us...and she loves to suck her fist! She's trying to roll over (Hope did for the first time in Guangzhou) and she's unable to sit by herself. She's got a snotty nose and a pretty decent cough...which I heard! She also has some red spots on her back that Garry is going to have checked out first thing in THEIR morning.

She was gurgling and cooing over the phone...he said that the new sleeper we bought for her fits her perfectly. We guessed right at 6-9 months...same size Hope wore!

Ohhhhh...I don't know how to describe how I'm feeling! It's the strangest combination of joy and sadness. I want to see the crooked little smile that her Daddy was describing to me...and I really want to see her roll her tongue and blow raspberries!

I have tabs currently open to Zhou's Kids, Kristian's blog, and Kristian's photo account...nothing yet.

She had gone to sleep about half way into our phone call...bless her heart. Garry kept calling her "Hopie 2" because she kept sticking her feet out of the crib...just like her sister.

For those of you following the story of the missing purse that Kristian had in her blog...

One of the new parents brought her sister with her. The sister left her purse on the airplane and didn't realize it until they were on the bus to the hotel in Chongqing. Zhou stopped the bus, made some phone calls, both sisters and Zhou's assistant got off the bus and went back to the airport to search the plane themselves.

The purse was never found and it contained cash, credit cards, and passport. When the sisters arrived back at the hotel at 1 a.m. they reported that the airport police have issued a reward for the return of the passport...and I believe the cards...sorry...mind is fuzzy! In the meantime, her husband is back home busily cancelling her cards. She and Zhou's assistant take off in the morning for a four hour train ride so she can apply for a visa as basically, it appears she is now in the country illegally.

Please pray for these gals...as if the whole trip isn't stressful enough.

All right folks...still no pictures to be seen and I've got to wake my oldest daughter! I'll post them whenever they arrive!!!