She's beautiful! And smart and charismatic and loving - just exactly what you'd expect a proud, proud aunt to say - all very true! What an amazing day. Unable to sleep past six, I headed to the hotel gym (two wimpy treadmills, an exercise bike, a rowing machine, and a few random weight machines). It's far too smoggy to run outside here, and there are no sidewalks to speak of (and the ones there are seem to double as emergency roads anyway), so it's the gym. It wasn't open at 6:30, so I investigated where the "tennis court" signs led on the 9th floor, and found a pristine court outside. I peered over the roof's edge and was amazed to see about 75 people ballroom dancing on the paved area outside the movie theatre building next door to our hotel. For a half an hour I watched these nicely dressed Chinese couples float around the plaza below me to music I could only occasionally hear faint traces of. On the far side of the plaza, an individual group of 8 or ten practiced fancier moves, and opposite them a woman was teaching a lone man what I swear was country western line dancing - and within ten minutes there were eighteen people who had migrated to her group. It was so amazing and beautiful to watch these people start their Monday off this way while on the 6 lane busy street next to them rush hour traffic began to build up and pepper the thin strrains of music with loud horn blasts. On the inner road/sidewalk, one older man practiced tai chi or chi qoung and a younger man stretched, older couples walked for their exercise and pushed an occasional stroller - it was so lovely to watch the city wake up this way, below me this lovely picture with women's skirts flaring out like tulip bells in different colors, the changing colors of the morning light, and the sounds of the music receeding gradullay in to thebusy din of traffic.

At 7:30 I went back in and found the gym just opened - a CHinese businessman came in at the same time as I did, dressed in nothing but a tight pair of swim shorts. I have to say that I really kicked his bootie on the treadmill! First off, it was an old, Italian-made treadmill that wouldn't go faster than it's reported 16 kph, and second, I have seen two Chinese people running for exercise in this country. Soon, two more friends joined the first, dressed the same, and they rode the bike at a light pace fdor five or ten minutes before doing calistehenics or weights. The gender difference has been interesting in this country - we have interacted with women so much more than men - they have been our servers and tour guides more often than the men, and in every interaction in hotels, restraunts, etc., have been so incredibly friendly and warm. There's no sense of chivalry at all; if anyhting, it's almost a photo negative of chivalry - so it was kind of fun to kick bootie on the treadmill.

Becky and I went down for breakfast and met up with others in our group - a sort of frenetic giddiness behind everyone's eyes. At 9:30 exactly we headed to the bus that took us on the 20 min drive to the governemtn offices where we picked up the babies. One of the tour books describes Changsha as a typical Chinese big city that is trying to concrete over it's beautiful history as quickly as possible, but there are some lovely parks and buildings peeking through - this is the home region of Chairman Mao, so there is some preservation certainly for his history. At the offices, we were shepherded upstairs into a nice waiting room, and within two minutes, our guide Veronica was reading babies' names off as they were brought in by thier CHinese nannies or orphanage staff and handed over in rapid succession to their waiting families - every reaction imaginable by the babies who range from 9.5-15 months - Zi Li's reaction was calm - she is a watchful girl with lovely big eyes, she grabbed on to Becky with an expression of "you're finally here! I've been waiting for you." I finally got to hold her when Becky went to a paperwork meeting at 3. When we got her back to the hotel room, she played on a bed with us, stopped with the identical expression to every infant I've ever known, a few grunts - and Becky was changing her new baby's first diaper! Often the babies won't eat or drink and all those functions stop, but Zi Li/Cerys hasn't had any issues! She's a little thing, healthy and long and lean, no tears to speak of, and she fell asleep on Becky's chest at nap time after a full bottle of formula. No bonding issues there!

What an incredible experience to wtch these families suddenly grow, and then to witness as Becky does those things that every first motherdoes - feed and clothe and bathe and cuddle their baby for the first time - and she is a natural as we all are - maybe a bit nervous tho something in us is telling us just what to do.

All we did with our day was play with her, make her bottles, etc. And during nap time when I wanted to give them tme alone, I generously went back to the Health Spa and tried the "Toes Massage" which was a $7 hour-long foot massage - with a backrub thrown in during the initial herbal soak. Very big of me. Did I mention that ILOVE China?

There is a play room on the 30th floor with tons of toy sfor the babes, and it's lovely to hang out with the International club of new parents and their lovely babies. It's so fun to think of these babies, months from now, speaking Italian or Spanish or French or Swedish. The language of love of a parent for a child is so totally universal, tho, and definitely what is spoken here. As we arrived at teh Civil Affairs Office, a group of new families was just leaving, and as we left, andother group was arriving. It is staggering to think of the number of babies that are finding new homes each day,a nd more staggering to think that it is a fraction of what is needed - multiply that times the number of countries in the world with parentless children, and it is enough to make your mind and heart go numb with shock. There are 200 agencies supporting Chinese adoption - and I think that might be just in the US.

So tomorrow it's official paperwork day, and giving of gifts day, and in the afternoon we visit a local kindergarten, adn the day after that we have an optional trip to Wal Mart, which feels just the tinies bit ironic - and I think that might be the correct use of that word.

Our extended family got bigger today by one - and our extended extended family - theconnection of all these Chinese babies finding homes away from CHina - got a whole lot biiger than that - my heart feels swelled up with it all.

Becky is a wonderful mom already, I am so excited for both of them, for the family they are now. We have met single parent families from lots of places, including Spain, on this trip - I think it is a wonderful affirmation for all of them to hear about yet another strong individual making the leap into parenthood - pretty humbling and awesome!

Welcome, Cerys Zi Li!