Gotcha!

There are no words to describe this day. We left Beijing around 8:30 am. Our plane was late getting into Guangzhou. It was the longest flight ever. It made the 13.5 hour flight seem easy. When we landed we were greeted by hot humid weather. Since our nerves (okay, mainly mine) were on high alert anyway, the heat made it worse. By the time we got the hotel and checked in we only had 20 minutes to get ready to leave for the civil affairs office. And it's not just grab a diaper bag and go. We had to have forms and documents and money all ready.

As we walked toward the buildings our hearts were pounding. We knew our appointment was at 3:00 and it was 2:50. As we walked in the building to head upstairs there was a group of women and babies also waiting for the elevator-it was our babies! Dave saw Emmy right away. Me, the doubter that I am, said "Are you sure that's her?" He was sure. When we got up to the floor I looked in the room where the babies were and saw her again. Then we had to go wait in our room and start filling our paperwork. Dave wandered back to the baby room and the nanny must of recognized him from the pictures we sent because she brought her over so he could film her.

Then after about 20 minutes of waiting and paperwork they said they would bring the babies and call out their Chinese names. I prepared myself to listen and figured we would be one of the last names if they went alphabetically and all of the sudden someone handed her to me. What a moment. There were tears-only mine, not hers. She was very still and looking around at all the chaos. Then Dave held her and she touched his beard. After kissing her, then kissing her some more we started watching our friends get their babies. It was truly beautiful and crazy! Emmy was very quiet and started to drift off. Our guide, Shirley, told us to go down the hall and have our adoption decree photo taken. She was so sound asleep that she wouldn't wake up for the picture. We had to wait till we could get her to open her eyes. She finally did and fussed a little bit.

The Orphanage Director was there and kissed on Emmy a lot. I think that means she is special!
Then it was over-we headed out to the bus. She was really tired on the ride and kept yawning but was fascinated by what she was seeing. She is very observant and curious. We have been in the room now for a few hours and she is doing well. She has a cold and some bad eczema but overall seems okay. She is tiny but she uses her hands a lot and was crawling on the bed earlier. Right now she is asleep and we are trying to regroup, maybe unpack and eat something.

This day is truly a miracle and we are so thankful and blessed. We feel everyones love and support just as we have for the past year and a half. We have a very busy day tomorrow with more paperwork and government meetings but I'll try to keep posting!

Love,
Dave, Lisa and Emmy