Monday, November 26, 2012
MEI-LI XIURONG PROCACCIO DAY!

Good Evening! It’s been a long blessed day. We started out with a wonderful breakfast at the hotel. We had more of an American style breakfast, although we did look at the different Chinese items. May tomorrow, with Mei-Li we will consider more of a Chinese style meal. During breakfast, we met a couple (Scott and Kathy) that just adopted two spinel bifida babies - this was actually their 8 or 9th Chinese adoption. What a wonderful couple, and two beautiful kids.

After breakfast, we met Michael (coordinator) and he took us to the bank, as today’s the day of fees/donations. Going to the banking to exchange money is not an easy, quick process; you have a mound of paperwork, ID verification, and process each US bill to ensure it is not counterfeit. Did I mention the number of stamps on each paper? I would say that the Chinese beat the German’s hands down. It took us over an hour to change USD into Yen however, during this time; we met a missionary adopting a four year old girl with albinism. We got to see them unite - later in the afternoon - cool stuff.

After the banking was complete, we had about two and half hours to wait until we departed for the Civil Affairs Office to meet Mei-Li Xiurong. We killed the time by walking through a small grocery store and relaxing at the hotel. Finally at 1400, we met Michael in the lobby and departed for the Civil Affairs Office. We arrived at 1430 but Mei-Li was not there. We were told she was going to be late, as she was caught in a traffic jam. Now, I really know she belongs in the Procaccio family :)

At about 1530, Felice was the first to see her arrive and escorted to the back room to finish paper prior to meeting us. A few minutes later Mei-Li emerged from the back room into a crowded, loud greeting area. We got down on the floor and she came to us right way. Even though she did not completely understand what was going on, here was no fear in her eyes. Within minutes, she was in our arms, no tears and no anxiety. We got escorted to a back room, in order to continue the initial bonding in a somewhat private room. The only time she cried there was when her caregiver came in to talk to us about her schedule and feeding. When he started to depart, Mei-Li started to cry. However the tears did not last long. We did not get a long of pictures during this timeframe but we did get some video clips.

Once we got back to the hotel room, Mei-Li played with the blocks for over an hour. She quickly learned that if she could not get the blocks in the right hole, all she needed to do was pick up the lid and put them in from the top. Great problem solving skills at 26 months! She loves the in and out game. We also learned she loves books and TV remote controls (Fel’s lost control now!) She is still in diapers at night and two bottles of formula a day.

So, today we learned two “Mei-Li” parenting lessons:

(1) Do not put her in “feetie pajamas,” she does not like her feet to be covered up and she got very hot.

(2) Change her wet diaper right way. She does not like to be in a wet diaper.

Both of these things happened after she went to sleep and woke up crying! Once these items were corrected, she went right back to sleep.

Please keep her hearing and speech in prayer! She does not say any words, as she unable to formulate words because of her clef palate. Her caregiver said she can hear and understand. However, we have not been able to completed confirm that, probably due to the language barrier.

Oh, two more observations:

(1) Mei-Li’s ears are shaped just like Felice’s ears, the right one and left one are slightly different and another sign she’s in the right family!

(2) Her shoe size appears to be a “six.”

Tomorrow, we are scheduled to return to the Civil Affairs Office to continue to complete the Chinese paperwork for adoption. We should be off in the afternoon. Pray for sun!

“Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world” ~James 1.27 (NIV)