Monday, March 11, 2013

She's in our arms!!

Wow! What a day! Brandon and I have forgotten the energy it takes to have a four year old!!
Our appointment with the Civil Affairs office wasnt until 12:30 so we met our guide at 12, exchanged all of the money we needed and then headed over to the office. When we got there, we filled out all of our paper work that was needed.
Then we waited... There were two other families adopting from Shanghai Childrens Welfare Institute so we were all nervously chit-chatting away. The other families had already paid but we hadn't so Brandon left the room with our Guide, MingMing to do so. That was when the other two families children came in so I was able to video for them.  Then when brandon came back, MingMing said Run Run was coming and Brandon said he heard her talking in the hall when they were headed back.
She came running into the room towards me saying, Mama,Mama! and then went right past me to see everything that was going on in the room.  All three families had gift bags and she wanted to know what was in them! :) So we got out the toys we had brought her and she came over to us...to get the toys. haha. But the her caregiver took the toys until she said Ni Hao and gave us a minute of her time. She was so inquizitive and talkative. It was so adorable!!
Her caregiver and the orphanage gave us a bag of gifts which included a seal/stamp of her chinese name, a flash drive with all of the pics they have of her, a photo book, and the gold bangles and pennant that she was found with, I was hoping she would get these and she did!! What a great symbol of the love her parents have for her.
When her caregiver was leaving, she started crying...It broke our hearts because she was calling out "mama". But MingMing told us the children call all of the workers mama. When Brandon got her a snack and MingMing told her how much we loved her, she stopped crying and was fine.
We left the Civil Affairs office and headed to the grocery store.  She wasnt too happy about the seatbelt..I wonder how she'll like the car seat at home. haha We let her pick out what she liked to eat. Fruits, noodles and some cookies. Then when Brandon got 2 packs of Coke, our guide told us she said, "Thats so much soda!"  when we got back to the hotel, she told MingMing that she was tired, (she missed her nap) BUT when we got up to the room, there was so much excitment she was NOT going to sleep. 
We played with all of her toys, tried on all of her shoes and her coat.  She ate and ate and ate and drank and drank and drank. They say that this is normal because at the orphanage they never get more, just enough. Then the three of us went to the lobby to try to get some help ordering pizza. RunRun and I went exploring while Brandon was getting help. When we came around the corner and Run Run saw Brandon, she yelled "BaBa!!" (which is what she calls him) and went running to him. My heart melted!! 
Its funny though to see Chinese people look at us like we kidnapped her or something. Its hilarious!
After the pizza ordeal, we went back to the room and tried to get her into the bathtub. She wasnt having it. But she did agree to a sink bath so we did a sink bath with her feet only in the sink. Then we coaxed her into sitting in the sink.  Then when we couldn't get all the soap out of her hair, we finally got her into the bathtub and she loved it!!  About 45 minutes in the tub! Brandon and she played while I took a shower. When she came in and saw me in the shower, she insisted in getting in too. Bath # 2. Then when we were done, she wanted to get into the bath tub again. bath #3!!  At this point, we were saying, "Whatever makes her happy!!"
We finally got to SKYPE the boys and they got to see RunRun. She was a bit confused about her brothers IN the computer but they were so happy and she was laughing and talking to them in Chinese. She is quite the talker! It's like she has four years worth of stuff to fill us in on! She doesnt care that we dont know what she is saying.  She is so funny!
We thought bed time would be a breeze but....we were wrong! We were trying everything! But she is so funny! She wears diapers but everytime she is wet, she will try to take her diaper off so we have to change her. This happened 4 times in about 30 minutes. She most likely hasnt slept in a bed before so she kept getting up and jumping around, falling on us and laughing her cute little face off!!  She really is a happy little girl! She hasnt cried once. But she does have a temper. If we say something she doesn't like... you can see it on her face. I think we are going to have our hands full.
Finally, we shut off all the lights and Brandon held her and sang to her until she fell asleep. This took about 45 minutes.
Our journey has started! It is going to be challenging but so worth it!
Thank you, God for your faithfulness and blessings to our family!

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations! What a great Gotcha Day! Your little girl sounds absolutely wonderful! I love how she is already calling you Momma and Babba! She reminds me a lot of Sophie when we got her! That first day she was so full of energy that our 6 year old reminded me of a 3 year old on sugar! She was just going from person to person and toy to toy and all around the room! She couldn't stay focused on anything for more than a minute because there so much newness to discover! She tried hard to get things her way all the time...and she laughs hard as she tells us now (a year later): "I was testing you to see what I could get away with!"
    Have a great time getting to know each other! Thanks for posting so we can all follow along!

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