These first three photos are taken at the Ministry of Civil Affairs in Changsha on Aug. 30.  It is the government building where we first met Kaylee. All the parents escaped the stifling heat of the building for a garden. Kaylee screamed like crazy but calmed down when she was offered a Winnie the Pooh rattle by Alice Lauber of Solvay.  Alice never got the rattle back.

The happy family's first photo together, less than an hour after we met.  We'd duck inside to fill out more paperwork, get photographed, give fingerprints and get the baby's footprint.  John got to hold Kaylee some, but it was hard to pry her from mom's hands.

Each baby arrived in the arms of a caretaker from her orphanage in Yueyang.  They passed off the babies to their parents and quickly retreated to a far corner of the garden.  This woman brought Kaylee.  During the mayhem, I noticed her crying as the new parents milled around.  Later we had our guide ask her about Kaylee's habits.  She said she didn't know; she wasn't Kaylee's usual nanny.  So, why was she crying as she looked over at us?

Kaylee was an immediate ham.  She likes the flash and looks right at the camera.

Of course, we wouldn't send the pictures of her crying.

All of us were a little tired.

We broke in our parenting skills on buses, planes, airports, hotels and restaurants.

Kaylee insists on sleeping on her stomach, but she was so tired in Yueyang, she made like roadkill.

The families posed with the director of the Yueyang Welfare House.  The orphanage takes in 200 children a year. Sixty get adopted each year, 40 to
the United States.  We tried not to think about the other 140 kids.  All 11 babies in our group came from the orphanage.  All were healthy and alert, very different from the reports from other places.  At this place, one caretaker watches eight babies in a six-hour shift.

The Chinese people were extraordinarily friendly.  The locals, especially older women, would size you up for an invitation.  If your eyes said "yes," they would burst up and tweak Kaylee's cheek, wiggle her leg or make this clucking sound that calms kids.  In 12 days, we didn't get a cross word or harsh look from any Chinese.  We'd like to think that means they approve of us taking one of their girls.

At the Baby Pizza Party, the 8-month-old babies struggled to stay upright.  It would take several more Tsing Taos before the parents were in that condition.

For Kaylee, rice was both a meal staple and a fashion accessory.  Note the Cleveland Browns bib.  The Chinese are big Browns fans.

We had to eat probably 10 meals in one restaurant at the Dongfang Hotel in Guangzhou.  Early, someone asked for more sweet and sour chicken.  Mistake. We had sweet and sour chicken at every subsequent meal.  Between the door and our seat, for each lunch and dinner, we were greeted by no less than six young women in long green silk dresses slit from the floor to just below the hip.  On the way in, you ran a gauntlet of "Welcome!"  On the way out, "bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye, bye-bye."  The place's exotic name: The Flavor Restaurant.

It took Kaylee a long time to smile. On the bus from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, we were desperate for one.  When she stuck out her tongue, so did John.  That did the trick.  Finally.

A nurse plays with Kaylee at her medical exam Sept. 3.  In her first five days in the states, Kaylee's had three shots and given seven blood samples.  Welcome!

Why do I imagine being greeted by this face at a police station in 16 years?

Before we left the Dongfang Sept. 8 for the airport and our return home, we stopped for a team picture.  Twenty-one adults, 11 babies and two guides.  Serendipity threw together a disparate group.  But for two weeks, we shared laughs and tears, and we saw each other bathed in various baby substances.  We met each other's daughters before any of our relatives did.  Could we ever
forget them?

Somewhere over the Pacific Ocean, Kaylee went visiting in the business class of a China Southern 757.  We discovered that when a baby cries at 35,000 feet, there is nowhere to go.  Kaylee's next flight won't be anytime soon.

Two groups of friends got into our house and trashed it with balloons, flowers, banners, food and gifts.  Coming home was joy enough.  Finding this
surprise was beyond words for us.  Here, Cindy, Kaylee and Peggy stand next to the three words we've waited 10 years for.

Now home, Kaylee is blossoming. She sleeps through the night and is pounding solid foods.  She hit it off immediately with our two dogs, who now watch her like a litter of one.  She ate ice cream and salt potatoes at Beaver Lake's Harvest Festival.  And she ran up a $176 tab at Toys R Us.  It is hard to remember when she wasn't in our life.