We have met Lei Lei !

At approximately 3pm at the Jiaojiang Bus station we were greeted by Director Liu and our new son Lei as we stepped off the nearly 6 hour bus ride. First, Our son Lei is absolutely, undeniably adorable in every way. He also appears smaller to us than we expected, but it may just be us because we really don't have any frame of reference right now. We are just hoping that all the clothes we brought aren't too big. Ok, back to our first meeting at the bus stop ..... When I stepped off the bus, I first saw director Liu and hugged her, then I looked down and saw Lei being urged towards me with a very large bouquet of cream lillies and coral roses. Alex and I looked down at Lei and saw the sweetest face you could ever imagine. In a split second, he looked up at both of us and said as plainly as I've ever heard it, " I love you, Mommy, Daddy " . To say that we are both in love with our Lei would obviously have to be an understatement.

Now, onto reality .... We were almost immediately whisked into Director Liu's mini-van with our guide Bruce, two of Lei's nannies, and Lei right after we arrived. Lei was sat on the edge of my chair and sat there for a couple seconds, then jumped his little hind end over to daddy's chair ;-),too cute ! Did I mention he already has daddy wrapped very tightly around his little finger.

Once we arrived at our hotel, "The Phoenix Villa", we went up to our room with Director Liu, the assistant director, Lei and our guide Bruce. We all ended up sitting in our guide Bruces hotel room visiting for over an hour. It took a little while but we eventually we were able to see a lot of Lei's personality coming through. I am here to tell you that he is quite the character and very outgoing. He also has no problem expressing himself fluently in Mandarin. Director Liu had said Lei is shy, but this must just be around new people or strangers because we certainly did not see it. He is quite full of himself and appears to be extremely smart.

While we were in the hotel room, Director Liu and Lei showed us some of his school work he has been doing and he can already write all his uppercase english letters amazingly well. He also writes many chinese characters and he has written the names of many of his friends from the orphanage. Director Liu gave us a photo album with many great new pictures of her and Lei with the other children from the orphanage at at the local town square playground and park recently. While we were in the hotel room, Director Liu mentioned to Lei that he could stay with us in our room last night but this didn't go over well at all. Poor Lei was visibly upset and big crocodile tears rolled down his cheeks. Since we are going to be in Jiaojiang two nights, we told director Liu that if it was ok with her, Lei could stay with her instead until he got used to us. I think tonight Lei is supposed to stay with us, but we are hoping that since we are spending the day with him, it may not be quite as traumatic for him.

Last night after we left the hotel room, we went to a banquet room in the hotel where we ate a large array of delicious sea food selections ordered by director Liu. We had a wonderful meal with Director Liu, the assistant director, another nanny, our son Lei, and our guide Bruce. Director Liu is such an amazing lady and we feel so blessed to be spending this time together with her and Lei. After the meal, we all rode down to the local square and walked around and saw all the people and the lights, water and large number of Taizhou natives dancing to some pretty entertaining disco music ;-) We also saw many children rollerblading which seemed to spark Lei's interest. While we walked around the square/park, Lei held both our hands whenever we requested it which was most of the walk :-) Lei seems to really enjoy lifting both of his feet up in the air and having us swing him quite frequently which was alot of fun for all of us !

After our visit to the park, we returned to our hotel room where Director Liu tried to coerce Lei into staying at the hotel with either us or our guide Bruce, but it was a "no go" because Lei was tired and not wanting to be left with strangers which we completely understood. Director Liu and Lei left for her house at approximately 8:15 pm. Alex and I promptly passed out and we are now getting ready this morning to visit the orphanage. We will post a few pics below and hopefully alot more tomorrow.

We also wanted to share that whenever Director Liu mentioned to Lei about staying the night with us, Lei would go grab Director Liu's business card. He was obviously making sure he could reach her in case of an emergency. As we have said before, he is extremely smart. Director Liu also said he has been giving her alot of lip service, such as that when he comes to America, he will grow up, be boss of large company, and send orphanage many donations ;-) We are definitely going to have our hands full with this child lol !