Gotcha Day

Thank you so much for all of your encouraging words! It is so good to know that people are thinking of us and praying for us!!

So far we haven't had ANY extra time to post on the blog but hoping it will calm down a little from here. Sadie is precious. We went Monday afternoon to the Civil Affairs Office here in Taiyuan to meet her.

Waiting in the hotel lobby to leave to meet Sadie

We got to the Civil Affairs Office and walked down a long dark empty hall to a door that led to the room where we were supposed to wait for our children to arrive. Our guide realized the door was locked so she left us and the other couple from our agency there to go see if she could find a key, and a few minutes later we saw her coming down the hall with two ladies holding little bundled up babies. We couldn't see them well because it was dark but we suddenly realized, Oh my goodness I think that's them!

Our room, ready with her crib

Getting our gifts ready

Our guide, Lisa

This is when we realized they were already here and coming down the hall

Sadie is behind the lady in pink and the other baby.
We couldn't tell who was who at first because they were so bundled

They handed her to me and she started to cry but only for a second and then she didn't cry again until we were at the hotel. She was smiling at us and kissing the bunny we brought for her over and over. She already had definite opinions and pushed away things she didn't want. We signed some papers that gave us permission to keep her for one night before finalizing the adoption the next day.

She has a big grin sometimes, and then she has this silly little sweet smile that we love!

She looks so big for her age, but when we put her in Myah's pjs they are big on her! I was surprised.

We were there for awhile then they drove us over to an alley and let us out of the van to walk down to a place to get a photo of the three of us for her passport. We came back to the hotel and played for a few minutes then tried to give her a bath. She HATED the bath and would not sit down so we bathed her off quickly and decided to save washing her hair for another day. We got her dressed and the grieving started. Like she realized we were taking care of her in the way her foster mama did. She would sit with me and let me snuggle her for awhile, then push me away and walk to the middle of the room, throw her head back and cry, then when I picked her up she would let me snuggle her again. We did this for a little while and then she started to play again.

She fell asleep in the crib but then woke up crying so we put her in bed with us. She is used to sleeping with her foster family all in the same bed. I'm not sure how they pulled it off, because she is a hard one to sleep with. She moves all over the bed, smacking and kicking us in the face in her sleep. We finally moved her to the crib to try to get some sleep. She slept there for awhile but woke up at 4am happy and ready to play, so we were awake from there.

We are not seeing her full personality yet but we see glimpses of it and can't wait to see more. She seems silly and fun and affectionate and opinionated. She likes to play little peek-a-boo-type games with us that she must have played lots before, and she will kiss us and then make an "ahhhh" sound like someone would make after gulping a coke or something and give that funny little smile.

Sadie is waking up from a brief nap now so we are heading to get more bottled water at Walmart and grab some lunch before we have to meet our guide. I'll write more later about Orphanage Day!