Meeting Siri for the first time

Hey boys! It's your Daddy.

Well, we met your baby sister for the first time this morning!! She was so cute when she arrived with her pig-tails sprouting up.

You'll be glad to know that she's a big eater just like us. She ate snacks all the way down to Bangkok from her foster family's house and was pretty sleepy and ready for a nap when she arrived.

When we first saw her we played with cups and the telephone for awhile, and she also likes playing with balls and balloons, which we tried out later on.

She REALLY liked Mommy today. After a few minutes of playing with her, she immediately sat on her lap and liked Mommy holding her.

When it was time for a bottle, she let me hold her, which lasted for about 5 minutes, then she let everyone know that she was ready to have Momma hold her again.

Like we expected, she was pretty shy at first and still doesn't seem to know how to take all of this change. Even though we've called her Siri since the time we knew we were going to get her, she doesn't really answer to that name yet.

Her nickname that was given to her by her foster mom is, Mae (pronounced, May) and she answers to that better than Siri or Sirithorn. We also found out that her given name is pronounced differently than we thought. The "h" sound is silent and is pronounced, Siritorn.

Her foster home is about an hour and a half bus ride north of Bangkok, and is called, Ayutthaya. It used to be the capital city of Thailand and has a ton of historical temples and sights. In fact, we were told that we could take a boat ride up the river to make a day trip of sightseeing with her on one of our free days after they release her to us. It looks like you can tour her town by elephant and checkout all the landmarks and the famous rice fields, that Ayutthaya is known for.

We had lunch together and she ate lots of rice and papaya. I think she actually ate so much of it that she didn't even care to eat the frosting covered cupcake that I got her for dessert....(don't worry boys, I didn't let it go to waste!)

After lunch, we spent some time back in our hotel room where Siri took a little nap.  Before she did though, we gave her the card that you boys made her with the Hello Kitty stickers.  She didn't say much, but I'm pretty sure she like it. 

Then, she napped soundly until she awoke to see some big ugly guy laying next to her.  Momma had to take her out on the balcony to console her and she quickly fell back to sleep.

 All in all, it was a perfect first meeting! Although she's still pretty unsure about me, I was still able to get her to crack a smile right before she got on the bus to head back to Ayutthaya.

Oh, and as she was leaving she did the cutest thing that I wish I had recorded on video. As her social worker spoke to her in Thai and said what I believe was "Tell mommy and daddy goodbye," she looked at us with those gorgeous dark eyes, clasped her little hands together across her chest, and nodded her head, with a traditional "wae," as they call it.

The gesture was the perfect ending to our first meeting, and seemed to be her little way of letting us know that things are going to be ok.

We love you and miss you!