Our Gotcha Day

We got up at 3am in Beijing to go with the other families and Yulin( our agency director) to the airport. We all left at different terminals so Yulin got us as far as security then we were on our own. Everything in Chinese but we got to the gate, and it was the wrong flight number. We managed to figure out that they changed the gate. Flight was easy and was 3 hours but the food was traditional Chinese, cooked red rice, celery salad, a chicken thing.  Could only manage to eat the yogurt. Our guide wasn't there when we got to Nanchang, she was late because the  road was closed for heavy smog (which they call fog)! She had a driver and when we got in the car she said the baby was brought from Fengcheng this morning (one hour drive) and was already at the hotel waiting for us. 

What...We weren't supposed to get right her that quickly but the people who brought her had to head back. When we got to the lobby, Jim saw her right away and said that's her over there! We went right over to her and she sized us up but came with me right away. We had only one hour in our room to bath and feed her. She was starved, drank her bottle in one minute then we had to meet back at the lobby. We walked to the provincial adoption center to sign her papers and get her footprints stamped. We were interviewed twice about why we wanted her. They gave us her finding ad from the newspaper and she was presented with a chinese porcelain jar. We had to drive to a Notary office and then to the passport office to get her passport. She fell asleep, all tuckered out. Then we drove to a grocery store for water and formula. We still had nothing to eat since the yogourt on the plane, I was famished. When we got back to the hotel and got in the elevator and she was after taking to us by now, looking for us everywhere, we both started to cry. We had a little meltdown. What a whirlwind. We got her up in the room and settled in and she played with us until 11 pm. She is fascinated by the little toys we brought her. She laughs out loud at us and yells at us Ah! when  we go out of her site to come back. She is constantly wiggling her toes. No words but she says something like mama. She has a few teeth. She is a happy baby. 

There are 3 other families here from the u.s.a. One lady from New York knew we were famished and dropped some cheese and crackers to our room. You know there really are some nice people in the world... 

We have no details on how she sleeps or her likes and dislikes so we will teach each other as we go! We are staying in today to rest and play with her.  We can't believe we are finally together.