Gotcha Day for the Jennings!!!

Hey there! It's Keith writing this time around. As I type this, it is 9:30 p.m. in Guangzhou and Tracy is snuggling in the bed with her scared little daughter who is trying soooo hard NOT to fall asleep.

I could write a book, but I want. At least not tonight! I do, however, want to share THE BIG DAY with you with some photos and narrative.

As we began our day, I don't think any of us anticipated how nervous we would be today. Everyone had butterflies. We knew we had one thing going in our favor - 8 is the luckiest number in Chinese culture, and today is March 8th.

Okay, so let me start with the obvious. She is BEAUTIFUL!!!

We arrived before she did and had to wait. Numerous families are in a large room in the Guangzhou Civil Affairs office, receiving their child one-by-one. The best way to paint the scene is this: lots of excited talking making an indistinguishable roar, LOTS of screaming babies and a few hyper siblings dashing across the room from time to time. It's sensory overload, but wonderful.

Here's what she looked like coming out to meet us.



This is when she sees us.



Here she is meeting us and checking us out.





Our first photo as a new family...



And then...

She started crying. And grieving. And she cried for the rest of the time we were there. And most of the way home.





And then...

She started checking out her new toys.







We ordered her conjee for dinner, since that's what she's been eating.

She hated it! And wouldn't open her mouth to eat it.

But she gobbled down two bowls of spaghetti!



We peeled five, yes five, layers of clothes off her. She had endured a three hour drive to meet us today and was in a soaked diaper by the time we got her home.

We didn't change her right away in order to give her space and let her warm up and begin to trust us. But she sure looked cute once we got some girly clothes on her.



Here's her spaghetti face...



As you would imagine, Mia has two VERY proud brothers.





As you know, we have kept her Chinese name, Fu Jia, as her middle name. We're spelling it Fujia, as is common when using Pinyin spelling. However, we have been pronouncing it using Mandarin tones: "foo-jyah." We learned today that using the Cantonese tones, her name is not pronounced "foo-jyah." It's pronounced kind of like "fuh-guy."

Mia has attached to Tracy in a big way. It will take a while for her to learn to trust me, but it doesn't bother me at all. This is what we expected and is a VERY healthy response. As hard as it is to watch her heart break and see how scared she is, she is proving to be a very strong girl with a great capacity to love. At this point, she just needs time.

And we've got plenty of time to give.

In case you are wondering, we have great Internet and email access. So we've been reading your blog comments and email messages, and really appreciate the support, encouragement and prayers you've given us. Keep 'um coming!

Stay tuned for more updates. We are here for the next two weeks. We have more paperwork, medical appointments, etc. ahead.