GOTCHA DAY!

Finally, we have her! She's sitting right here in the hotel room as I write this. Jason is playing with her on the floor and she is doing beautifully!

Let me start from the beginning......we met our guide at 2:15pm and arrived at the Civil Affairs Office about 20 minutes late. We knew that she was already there so we wouldn't have to wait long to see her. We entered the room where all the child meetings take place. It is surrounded by a red couch and there were about 5 or 6 other couples there with their new children. We had a small, but scary, glitch right away. When our guide came up to us with the paperwork and told us to check that everything was correct....it wasn't. The only thing on it that was right were our 2 names. Our passport numbers weren't ours, our address was listed in Scottsdale, AR, and the worst part.....the child's name was a completely different name. For a minute, all we could think was that they had brought the wrong child to us. Our guide panicked for about 10 seconds and then double checked other papers. "you're adopting Sui MingJuan?" We said we were and she said it was all okay. The paperwork was wrong, but we had the right child. Good lord, talk about a crazy thing to worry about for that couple minutes.

At that point, she said it's time to go see her. She's coming. We got up from the couch just in time to turn the corner in the room and see her coming in the door. Walking at first, then picked up by her caregiver when she wouldn't come any further. It was so surreal to see her in person. I really expected her to look more different.....after all it has been about 8 mos. since her referral photo was taken...but she didn't. She looked like our Livi. The one who's face we've memorized for the past 6 mos. and she was precious.

I didn't cry like I thought I would. I got choked up, but mostly all I could do was smile and hold her. Actually, I had done my crying earlier that day....a couple times. Just the anticipation was worse than the actual moment. Jay and I just stood there holding her and talking to her for a long time.

Finally we had to go sit down and do some paperwork. Jay did it mostly while I held her and showed her some of the toys we had brought. Her favorite thing was the small Magna Doodle. She just kept drawing and looking around. She didn't cry, ever. Mostly, she just looked confused and a little scared, like she didn't understand what was going on.

After some paperwork was done, we were able to meet the orphanage director and caregiver. We gave them each a gift and were allowed to ask some questions about Livi. They told us what she ate and how much. We asked them what they called her and they said something a little different than we've heard so far. It was pronounced like Ming-king with the king part having a raised fluctuation. Hard to explain and actually a little hard to say too, but it was interesting to hear since that was news to us. The caregivers told our guide that she is a very easy going child. She has definitely shown that so far this evening. We told them thank you for taking such good care of her. They seemed genuinely sad to say goodbye to her and you could tell they cared about her. That made us feel good.

One of the best things we received was a total surprise. We were given a piece of paper with a small piece of cardboard taped to it. It is from her birth mom. It was left with her when she was abandoned. It has her birth weight, date, and time. Just to have that is such a treasure. It just tells us that she cared about her and maybe just didn't feel like she had any other choice.

We got her back to the hotel, changed her, played with her for a bit, and went to get some dinner. The best thing happened at dinner when I started to play with her and she smiled real big......I even got her to laugh a bit. It was the cutest thing ever! We ordered her some chicken congee (which is basically rice cooked to mush with lots of water and some small pieces of chicken). She liked it okay, but didn't eat much. Not what we were told, as they said she has such a big appetite, but today has been a long and hard day for her so I'm sure it's because of that. I had tried to give her some water earlier in the hotel.....in a sippy cup, a regular soft cup, and a special bottle with no luck from any. I'm not sure what to do about that yet, I'm going to try again here before bed. I hope I can help her better this time, she just doesn't seem to know how to drink from anything. We'll figure it out I know.

I'm gonna sign off for now. I'm giving her a bath, trying a bottle again, and then it's bedtime. She's had a very long, emotionally trying day so I'm sure she's tired. I'm hoping she is able to sleep well tonight as I'm sure she needs it and I know I do.
Thanks for all the continued prayers, we really appreciate it.