What Gotcha Day was like

Finally a relaxing day to clear our heads and catch up. We don't even have to leave the hotel. It's Day 5 in China and I think we were all ready to relax. We had breakfast in the hotel restaurant and then went for a swim in the huge hotel pool. Tonya and Noelle watched us from the side. Noelle just had this dumbfounded expression on her face for the the first 10 minutes in pool room. Lots of sights and sounds to take in for someone who's entire life has been lived in an orphanage. After the swim we came back and put Noelle down for nappy-time...much needed. I'd say she slept about an hour while Robin and I did postcards and Tonya looked at some info. on the orphanage. Mary our guide just called the room to see if we wanted to order Pizza Hut with the other families. Oh yah. We also are waiting for our laundry to come back. We sent a bag full up to our guides room. Our country guide Linekar hired an outside service to do any laundry we needed to have done. So, Noelle is awake now and in a good mood again. But, she does fuss when Robin is in her face too much. Robin is having a hard time giving her adorable little sister a little space. Trust me, it's hard to resist the cuteness.

Anyhow, at 2:45 on Monday we walked across a busy, no insanely, dangerously busy city street with lots of fast moving traffic to the civil affairs building. We all crowded claustrophobically into an elevator and went up to the 26th floor. That's the way the Chinese do it...sardine style. On the 26th floor we crowded into this one room where there were already 10 or so families from other groups hanging out talking. There where also some babies there, but not for our group. Our group consists of 7 families. Six families all waiting for their healthy referrals from the same orphanage in Poyang (all babies last name Po) and then Noelle from Fuzhou SWI in Fuzhou City.

After about 30 long minutes of waiting some people started coming in with babies. One by one they called the other six families and handed them their little ones. It was one of the most incredible things to experience. Most of these babies are around 8 months. They all looked so healthy and well cared for....not to mention....cunnin'. At this time we began looking around to see if we could see Noelle...nope...and the babies stopped coming. It was a little hard to rejoice with our new friends. Meanwhile, Tonya and Robin were sitting on a bench in the back just waiting. After about 10 minutes I went and sat by them. I noticed Robin was crying a little and I also saw tears coming out of Tonya's eyes. She said she was worried because Noelle wasn't there yet and hoped she was okay. I guess the guide had told her that someone or some babies from her orphanage had showed up but not our baby. It was rough because that's all that was said for the next 10 minutes or so. Finally, our guide Linekar came over and said he heard that they were stuck in traffic and that our baby would be here in 5-10 minutes. It was no less than 2 minutes later I saw a single Chinese man carrying a baby in who was dressed in an oversized red and white flannel coat with a big hood. She was bundled up like you wouldn't believe. I jumped up to see the face and sure enough it was her. It was her dainty little face and mouth and facial expression that gave it away. It was her! They called us over and the man handed Noelle to Tonya and I moved in. Robin tried to tape for a minute but we all just wanted to be right there around her. After that I got to hold my daughter for the first time. She did not make a wimper. She made one soft little cry when she was first handed to Tonya. She just stared and stared. It wasn't 5 minutes and they told us it was time to leave and go back to the hotel. We all got jammed back into the elevator. I was holding Noelle. It was freaky. There were people everywhere and it was really noisy. I just held her close and rubbed her back and said "It's okay, it's okay". I repeated this the whole way back to the hotel in a very non-manly voice but I didn't care. It was my daughter and she was scared. She didn't cry once crossing Insane Street and before we new it we were back in the hotel room with Noelle sitting on the bed. One hour from when we left. We just let her sit on the bed and look around. When Tonya finally tried getting some of her many layers of clothing off she began to cry. It was really sad. I don't like the feeling I had hearing her really cry for the first time. We only had an hour in the room then we had to go to a conference room and fill out the application for the civil affairs to complete the adoption. It took about an hour tops. I filled it all out then we both signed numerous times. Noelle was so good. The rest of the night was so wonderful. She played and laughed and interacted with all of us. She is so smart. She is also very strong. I think her favorite past time is imitating us. Which is unbelievably funny at times. She doesn't like to be undressed, bathed, be touched a lot by Robin and me, watermelon, have Tonya walk away from her, sit in a shopping cart, ride in the BabyBjorn with anyone but Tonya, be left sitting by herself, fried egg, croissants, the stroller, big stuffed animals, big dolls, and pacifiers in her mouth. She loves her colored stacking cups beyond all reason, her bottle with formula, apple juice, congee, Cheerios to the max, imitating all of us, playing patty-cake with Robin, hugging mama, giving me 5 and watching me stick up my thumb and say "heyy" then poking her belly. She babbles under her breath in a sweet raspy little voice. She loves being tipped backward then brought up again due to the head rush. She likes veggie-bites, sipping water from a bottle cap, watching people on TV (if their speaking in Chinese)...she just stares forever at it. She IS obstinate at times EXACTLY like they said. She'll yank away from Robin, throw stuff, and clench her fists. She loves to share everything though too. When she has Cheerios she'll feed me one, eat one herself, feed mama one and so on. She is has already bonded with us so much. Her mama is her number 1 on the planet. Me carrying her around without her crying is always hit or miss. God had it all pre-arranged that she would be part of our family. She is a perfect fit.

Oh yeah, she does have some of the Mongolian spots that we were told about. They look just like bruises. They are harmless and disappear as she gets older. She also crawls. We found that out for the first time last night. She stands pretty good when we hold her up.

Here are some photos from our Gotcha Day (sorry they are late):