We got Kate!

The guy who wrote the fishing note for us

My sister just called me! I'm so excited! She has Kate... before going back to sleep I wanted to get this up right away - Wendy

We have the most beautiful, smart, and amazing daughter! She was very serious at first and after about five minutes she opened up the photo album we had sent her to the picture of me. She looked at the picture and looked at me and smiled. Then we opened her book to Zamboni’s picture and she giggled, and then Brennan started being silly and she laughed and laughed! She is so happy and content- absolutely no tears yet! Every once in awhile she looks really serious and sad but then we distract her (which is easy to do) and she smiles again. I truly think the orphanage did a GREAT job explaining to her what was going to happen. She is quite the observer and cleaned up her own toys a little bit ago. She also looked at a book page by page in the right order. I can just tell she’s smart! She reminds me a lot of Brennan in the way they both like to observe something before trying it!

She has snuggled her Hello Kitty doll and photo album that we had sent her. She also loves some bracelets and her fuzzy pink sweatshirt. She is so precious with the best smile and cutest giggle! Brennan said, “This is much easier than I thought it would be.” While I was signing some paperwork back in the hotel room, Brennan crawled under the covers and fell asleep. Poor guy- it’s only 5:00 PM!

We didn’t get Kate until 2:00 PM and Brennan and I were both awake at 4:00 AM so we managed to do A LOT before getting her. After a delicious buffet breakfast we were on a mission to find a fishing pole- surprise hey?!!! So we walked all over into many stores. We walked through the Chinese Market that had some different smells and items for sale (Brennan used a different word to describe them LOL). Not many people spoke English so we decided to cross back over to the island where our hotel is… it’s a bit more touristy and therefore more people speak English. Many people tried to help and then we came across a store and the guy wrote out a few sentences in Chinese for us… Something along the lines of Do you have a fishing pole? Would you sell your fishing pole? How much? So we took his note and went back to the canal where we had seen some fishermen earlier. We handed the note to one man and he showed us that he had four fishing poles. (He didn’t speak any English.) We pantomimed a lot and he pantomimed a lot and he got the idea that we wanted to buy one. He said yes and then we tried to determine the price. Meanwhile about six other people joined the conversation and everyone was trying to help, even though nobody except Brennan and myself spoke English. I tried to give the guy 100 in Chinese Money and he talked for awhile and I realized he wanted a little more money so I offered 200. He talked a lot more and I thought he wanted more money… I tried to hand him 300 and he talked a lot more. Meanwhile two of the people who were trying to help showed me with their hands that he wanted 180 Chinese money. What a nice guy!!! Here I was handing him 300 and he wouldn’t take it because it was too much. He truly set Brennan up with hooks, bait, etc. So now Brennan has a fishing pole and can say he has fished in the Pearl River and the Canal. He hasn’t caught anything yet, but it’s still only our first day!

Life couldn’t be better! We are so happy!

Lots of love,
Dee, Brennan, and Kate

The picture with Brennan is with the guy that wrote the fishing note for us. The guy who sold the pole didn’t want his picture taken.

Kate in the hotel room (first day)

Kate holding her new adoption Barbie doll given by the hotel