Gotcha Day!

What a day! It is now about 8:30pm Monday night and we have a fast asleep little girl in her crib. :) We started off our day with a delicious breakfast buffet at our hotel and then just waited and waited and walked around Shamian Island a lot...getting more anxious as the time to meet our guide in the lobby at 2pm approached. We headed over to the Civil Affairs Office about 15 min drive away and Chun Le and her nannies had not yet arrived. More and more families were coming and more and more nannies with children arrived but we did not yet recognize any of them as Chun Le. And then there she was...we both spotted a little girl walking through the door with two nannies alongside her and were really sure it was our little girl! They took her to the corner of the room for a minute while our guide went to find out if it was her and it was then we noticed her carrying in one of her hands the little family photo album we had sent her in a care package back in June! They came over to bring her to us and it was at that point I was just bawling...the moment was finally and really here! They handed her to Jill at first and she had a few tears but no real crying...Jill was the one doing the crying. :) She did not mind us holding her but it was funny that we had to hold her in a way that allowed her to face outward from us rather than against our hip. It was obvious she was trying to figure all of this out. We spent about 20 min with the nannies while our guide translated for us to get questions answered about her care and for us to be able to express our appreciation to them. They were such nice ladies that obviously have cared deeply for our little girl. Chun Le sat on Phil's lap pretty much the whole time this was going on. She is very much an observer. She takes in EVERYTHING going on around her all the time. During this time at the Civil Affairs Office she would now and then have her eyes well up with tears but there was no real crying from her at that point. One neat thing we learned is that Chun Le loved the family photo album we had sent and carries it with her all the time. It is obviously well worn and that was such a cool thing for us to see that she had those photos to look at for all these months in preparation to meet us. :) After we left the Office and say goodbye to the nannies, Lee took us to Carrefour (like a huge Walmart) to buy her formula, rice cereal, diapers. At that point I put her in the Baby Bjorn and she just comfortably rested in there as we walked around and again just soaked up everthing going on around her. We got back to our hotel room and filled out some paperwork with Lee and she did some more translation for us about her orphanage schedule and feeding instructions. Then, we were on our own and took her across the street to a restaurant to get some congee for her 6pm feeding. She ate a bit of congee and drank about half of what they said she normally takes for her formula/rice cereal mixture but we figure that is pretty good considering all she has been through this afternoon. She started shaking her head no for the bottle and we figured it was time to get her to bed. It was at this point she was getting a bit more fussy and crying a little also. Poor little girl must be just physically and emotionally exhausted from all that she has been through today (the least of which was a 5 hour car trip with her nannies from her orphange to the Civil Affairs Office). Just a few minutes of being held and rocked calmed the crying and put her to sleep. She is out cold in her crib right now. :) We will see how she does during the night. Phil and I are going to get to bed too now as we are emotionally exhausted from the day and lack of sleep we had last night thinking over what today was going to be like. We have a beautiful new little one in our family whose seems to have a quiet, deep thinking type personality thus far. Of course she has A LOT to think about and process right now! Thank you for your prayers and continue to pray for us as she makes this transition. We both feel she is doing far better than we expected but we are sure there will be rough patches in the next days as the reality of this change sinks in. Here are some pics from Gotcha Day: