Bleeker Family Day Details

Yesterday was the most incredible day! Purely magical and just unbelievable.

After making our flight to Tainan, we took a cab to the St. Lucy Center. Sally, our translator, reviewed the itinerary for the day on the way and called the orphanage to let them know we were on the way. They wanted to know if we were ready...

Sally told us we would give them an outfit for Kaylee and then they would bring her out and we could get to know her while they reviewed her schedule with us and answered the questions we had submitted about the Birth Mother. I gave Jessica 2 outfits, surprisingly she returned the larger one. Within minutes they brought her out. She let me take her immediately and just took everything in. The first thing I realized is she was much tinier than I expected and she smells so good :)

After posing for pictures, I continued to hold her, while Troy took notes as Sally gave us the answers to the questions we had submitted. She also reviewed Kaylee's feeding and nap schedule. Poor baby has a bunch of mosquito bites on her face that she's scratched and gotten infected, we have some medicated creme for that. She also has very sensitive skin and is on hypo-allegenic formula.

They were a bit concerned to see us in short sleeve polo shirts based on the cold front that had come through. Sister Rosa was particularly concerned that I did not have a coat on Kaylee. I had a long sleeved onesie, but she kept saying she needed a coat. So I got to put on her precious pink fur trimmed coat - thanks, Meghan.

We are so thankful to St. Lucy's for the excellent care she has received. It was obvious that she was very loved as each of workers came and said goodbye to her, some several times. They gave us a beautiful gift of a journal that they added some pictures we hadn't seen and also wrote notes to her....all in Mandarin, so we will have to get those translated. We also found out that she was visited several times by her Birth Mother and several relatives. Her Birth Mother gave us two beautiful gifts - both necklaces. The first is a silver pendant that has her Mandarin name inscribed on one side and long life inscribed on the other. The second is a beautiful gold dog charm in honor of her year of birth - 1995 the Year of the Dog.

We toured the nursery and saw all of the babies. We had to wear surgical masks during our tour. We saw the crib that Kaylee had stayed in that was now empty. They have some wonderful volunteers who come and help work with the babies and give them some extra love. They were there working with the babies during our visit. We put her in her crib for the final time for her bottle while we had our lunch. I hated to leave her in there for even those brief moments.

Our Family Day was the last to be held at St. Lucy's current location. They returned all of the items we had sent her, (with the exception of the clothes) including the disposable camera. Can't wait to get those developed. We also received the most precious gift - pictures of her at birth. Jessica also gave Sally information I requested for her family tree. They embroidered her Mandarin name in the blanket we sent her. The whole day was surreal and it's still hard to believe we have our beautiful girl (who is now napping with Daddy).