Day 3.....Meet Max

Greetings Everyone!

Today was a great day. A day different than most. We met our son today. Max Pan Bin Lloyd, known here as "Bin Bin"

Cute, darling smile, energetic, loves his new toys and likes to throw them, silly, and so far a good sleeper. (said while trying to type quitely)

We prepared to meet Max at noon today. The kiddos left Baotou headed here this morning, with their two nannies, and Miss. Xue the orphanage coordinator.

After a very large buffet breakfast in our hotel lobby, which was deserted, we filled our bellies thinking this may be our big meal of the day. Lots of western comfort food, and lots of items we weren't sure about, left to the imagination. We then proceeded to the workout room here. Curiously, again deserted, very nice and new, and untouched. Fine by us.

We made another venture out to the grocery store, this time by ourselves (along with the Williams family) to get more precious water, and look around a bit more in the store. Still lots of stares did not deter us from finding what we needed, and a bit more. The streets were a bit less crowded due to being a work day, which was nice, still lots of random fireworks happening spontanously. Costco sized boxes of them, let off all at once. Kinda Roman Candle looking (John being a pyro guy was thrilled to watch)

We relieved to get back to our warm hotel and get all of our items back in order before the big meeting time. We had to prepare our gifts (customary to give notaries, civil afairs officers, etc. for this process)

High noon. A phone call from Jessie to meet in the lobby, the boys will be here in 15 mintues. (kinda dramatic writing huh?)

We make our way, nervous, anxious, excited, and a bit sweaty (me only) A gentle reminder from Jessie to smile when we see the kids, not cry, just smiles everyone, very Fantasy Island. We don't want to upset the kids.

The little white bus pulls, up, "there they are" we exclaimed! And sure enough, Max was here. Just like that. 2 years waiting, 12 hrs on the plane, and he was here.

A wedding was happening also in the hotel (one of many symbolic "lucky" days in the chinese culture) and the photographers followed us. They don't see stuff like this go on too much our guide told us.

Needless to say, we cozied into some lobby comfy couches to snuggle up with Max. Introducing ourselves as Mommy and Daddy, he didn't cry, just huge eyes, checking us out. Just like 4 years ago, we pulled out the magic "tootsie roll lollipop" And he was in heaven.

Max was layered in about 3 layers of clothes. He looked like a little buddha. A buddha eating a sucker. He was checking us out, and was almost asleep. This was the kids nap time.

Then more of the paperwork started, swiftly moved along by Jessie and Miss Xue. He had his passport photo taken, our family photo for the documents, and our fingerprints in red ink across our signatures. Miss Xue brought all of the items we sent Max in our two care packages. Including the disposable camera we asked to take photos of the orphanage, and the blanked my mom made for him (hi mom!) She also had some progress reports, his schdules, and updates and notes from the nannies. Jessie will be translating them for us soon.

We headed back to our room, after about an hour, said our good byes to Miss Xue (the nannies swiftly left before we could say goodbye so the babies wouldn't get upset) How sad we couldn't thank them personally.

Max is filled with wonder, upon seeing the toys we brought, blocks, cars, musical toys, etc. He was throwing them around, showing us them, and checking out the room. And, very hungry as well. He scarfed down a giant bowl of noodles, handfuls of cheerios and goldfish crackers, and water.

Jessie ran to the market for us to get formula (he has some before bed) diapers, etc. Our room just shrunk by half, tiny room, lots of stuff, and a toddler.

After playing a bit, bonding, we walked down to the Williams room to see how it was going with Sean. Same scenario. Toys, snacks, happy kids.

More paperwork from Jessie, in preparation for tomorrow (more civil affairs stuff) and we could see that ever-familiar doze in those big eyes.

We ordered a pizza (for us, sorry Max, not yet), and watched some t.v. They told us Max likes tv. Which is kinda funny to me, so we all watched a HBO movie, and Max was dancing to the music, with his hands, he likes music.

Time for bed, his eyes were getting heavy, slowly closing, trying to put him in the crib ( a no-go) he woke back up crying. OK, option 2, fall asleep next to us, and put him in. Done. that worked.

And so it is, our family is now complete.

Thank you all for the kind emails, we love them!

More to come soon!

Love,

Beth, John and Max

Update on Princess Juliette: having a great time with Krystal! Going to parks, swim lessons, drinking V8 splash, her new favorite drink we're told, and just having a good time. We spoke/saw to them on Skype today, it was so great. Thank you Krystal!

p.s. The lovely and talented Krystal "Smitty" Smith has updated our blog for us! Awesome, thank you Smitty!