We just got internet at our hotel today.  We arrived in Lanzhou at about 8:30 pm last night.  Due to the need of spending time with Yi Yi before our meeting with the Chinese Center for Adoption Affairs she was already at the hotel when we got there.  She was waiting with her nanny and another guide.  So it was an interesting introduction.   The last picture we had of Yi yi was taken 2 years ago.  We didn't come close to recognizing her.  Her previous photo, which you can see on the blog, was taken with glasses and how she was dressed made her look like a boy.  She even made that comment about herself when she saw a copy of the photo.   She was more mature, of course, but looking very much like a girl with headband, decorative pony tail holder and lots of pink clothes.   She was very polite right from the beginning, shook our hands and said 'hello' in English.   We learned a little more about her story from one of the guides.  What we'd been told in her profile wasn't 100% accurate but was close.  She was abandoned as an infant but she was found by a woman who was a reporter for the newspaper here.  This woman raised her as her own and spent several years trying to work through governmental red tape so she could adopt her.  Because Yi Yi had been abandoned and her birth not registered the government determined there was no way for the woman to adopt Yi Yi.    So 3 years ago when she was 9 1/2 she was placed in the orphanage.  They said in order for her to be more prepared to be adopted it would be better, at her age, to stay at the orphanage as bonding with a foster family and then leaving them at an older age would be difficult.   Over the past year Yi Yi was so determined to be adopted she asked if she could write her own reasons for wanting to be adopted and have them presented to the CCAA.  (I'm a little sketchy on the exact details and formalities but that's the gist).  After 6 months when she was still not adopted she asked to write another one and she was given permission.  My understanding is it is not normally the child that does this.   Anyway, it has been interesting learning more about her.  We have  the e-mail and phone number of the woman who raised her for her first 9 1/2 years.   As we sat and filled out paperwork last night and had the blessing of 2 guides with us at one time, she asked lots of questions, we asked lots of questions and she has so much in common with Brad, Lane and myself it's jaw dropping.   One of the guides was teasing her a bit about her placement photo and said he believed she would got to MIT or Harvard for math and science.  Her response to that was 'no'.  She only wanted to dance ballet,and learn more about art, theatre and music.  Her nanny said that every day after school she would find a television show with ballet on it and try and copy everything they did.   Between our guide and the electronic translator and her brief knowledge of English and my badly butchered attempts at basic Chinese we've already had a lot of talks about ballet and the arts and that's all she's interested in.   I know we're still in the honeymoon period but she has been a very sweet girl.  She is in 6th grade here in China.  I'm not exactly sure how that would match grades in America.     Another thing that Lane will laugh at is today she typed onto the translator that she wanted Baba to make me and her laugh.  Lane loves to put Brad on the spot too.  Brad readily admits he's always looking for a way to make things amusing.  I think she has already figured that out.   They asked us if we had chosen an American name for  her.  We had tossed around a couple of ideas but we wanted to ask if there was something that she would like too.  She said she liked the name Lena.  So her paperwork and passport now show her officially as Lena Yiyi Turgeon.   It's quite cold here in Lanzhou so we've not gone out much other than to official places.  We leave on Friday for Guangzhou and the temperatures there will feel good.   That's all for now.  The jet lag is catching up to both Brad and myself.