Wefinallymeet

***Ok, so it's January 23rd, 2002 and we're standing in the dark, crowded and hot hallway outside our guides door. The first group of angels are in their parents' arms, some of the sobbing uncontrollably, some just too stunned to say anything, and some sound asleep. Every two seconds I'm glancing down the hallway for the babies from Guiping!

***"They're coming!" someone shouts and I turn quickly, camera in hand, to see another procession of bundled babes being carried down the hallway toward us. Again, I frantically take pictures of as many as possible, hoping for one of Leslie, though I don't recognize her face! My hubby and I had a deal that when they called our name and handed the baby over, I would be the one to take her first. We'd read about how the girls take to dark haired people. Bruno, (very Italian), though he'd try to take her if she fussed with Mom. Knowing our deal, I quickly handed the camera to him, and I'm sure I must've said 10 times to be sure to take lots of pictures! Poor guy!
***We wait as again family numbers are called and families are finally united! Then I hear "12..." (Wow! We're next!) and then "13...oops...Folino familiy 14". There she is, in the arms of the woman in the update photos that we just received. She's very wide eyed and has very flushed cheeks and she was being handed right into my arms! Leslie Xiongling Folino - here at last! She just stared at me, then at Daddy as he got closer to us. She just looked at us with complete confusion with no reaction whatsoever. I will never be able to explain the feeling of finally holding this precious one. My baby! Our little daughter!

***Then all the caretakers reentered the hotel room to talk with our guide. We could see the woman that had given us our daughter. She couldn't take her eyes off of us either! Everything seemed to happen so fast at this point. I know that we were the last family to receive our daughter and many of the families had returned to their rooms to be alone with their girls. We had seen them being handed a paper before leaving and were kindof waiting to see if we were to wait for one as well. Finally everyone emerged from our guide's room again. Leslie's caregiver/nanny? came to us and rubbed suddenly on Leslie's shoulder and back. She "tsk-ed" her tongue in disapproval. What had I done? I turned Leslie to see what was wrong, and found some spit-up on her little sweatshirt. Here I was trying to explain to this woman, in the dark hallway, in a foreign language, that I hadn't seen the mess. I think I was apologizing when she saw a tissue on the floor, snatched it up and began wiping at Leslie's shirt. Ok, in one fail swoop I'd given this woman the impression I was a bad Mom. (Ok, not exactly...but with as emotional as I felt at that moment, these were the thoughts going through my mind!) Then I remember standing by Bruno, holding Leslie, with this woman to my left. She looked so sad and upset. I kept trying to say "thank you" then even tried it in Chinese as they'd taught us. She looked as though she didn't understand. She leaned over and kissed Leslie. At that point the emotions took over again and I reached out and hugged her. She hugged back and smiled. How could I thank this woman for obviously caring for Leslie so much?

***We took Leslie back to our room to be alone at last. She was still so very quiet, not making so much as a wimper or a sigh. Her first response to us was at our offering Cheerios. She quickly took her little fingers and carefully picked them out of my hand one-by-one. (Good coordination! I thought!) Daddy sat with her on the floor with a couple stacking cups and more cheerios while Mommy filled out the official paper we'd been given. I don't remember what we did next, just that we spent a little time cuddling, and I know I offered her a bottle and she didn't want it. I know that somewhere in her I slowly removed her little clothes and cherished looking over that sweet chubby body. I wanted, of course, to kiss her all over, but also didn't want to frighten her. We talked calmly and removed the 3 layers of clothing. Everything looked very clean and new (also no sign of any lice, scabies, or illness) except for the onesie closest to her body. It appeared very dirty, like it'd been worn for months without washing. I folded everything up (double ziploc-ed it later to take home) and put on her little diaper, yellow cotton pants and white long sleeved shirt with slippers. She looked like a doll, especially with that coal black hair standing straight up on the top of her head! We were parents at last! We took her out in the hallway to visit with everyone else, have official pictures taken and complete more paperwork. I put her down to see if she'd stand alone and she surprised us by taking a few very rocky steps before stopping to look at us like, "well, are you coming?" She was 13 months old and walking! Yippee! How healthy and strong she was!

***The next few days were filled with lots of family time, little friends playing in the elevator lobby, little sight-seeing trips guaranteed to have us back to our room for baby's nap, and lots of paperwork. One noteworthy event happened just the morning after meeting Leslie. We boarded buses for a government office in "town". The first half of our families went in first and the second group (with Guiping babies) waited in the bus. While we were waiting, I saw a familiar face across the parking lot by some (possibly?) apartment buildings? There, looking at the bus was the woman that had been so important in Leslie's little life...the woman that handed her to us. She and another young lady raced over to the bus. Leslie and I were by the window seat and so we waved to get their attention. The lady came to our window, though the bus window was up quite high, and began waving and clapping to Leslie. Leslie clapped too! I amiled really big and used Leslie's hand to blow a kiss to her. She really seemed happy to see this, and to see Leslie. I hope that she could see that we really loved Leslie and how grateful we were to her. She appeared to get very choked up and moved away from our window. That was the last time we'd see her, until we returned home and developed the instant camera they'd given us. We had sent it in a package right after getting our referral and when we saw the pictures, the entire roll with the exception of 1 or 2 pictures was of the two of them. Leslie (then JinXiongling) and her loving care-taker.

***It's now July of 2003 and I'm FINALLY attempting to mail the orphanage an updated letter and more pictures. The agency we went through sent the official follow-up information, but several people we know have written letters back and received replies. I hope we're as lucky! If we do here back - I'll write more about the contents!