Gotcha Day!

What an amazing day we've had. Twelve girls and one little boy took a 150 mile, six hour bus ride from Yunyang this morning and arrived at the hotel around 12:20 pm. Kyle and I were relaxing in the hotel lobby lounge waiting for time to pass and decided to go up to our room. On our way someone asked if those were our babies in the lobby. We high-tailed into the lobby and sure enough our girls were there. We picked out our sweet Eliza and followed them to the elevator. She watched us for a few seconds. It was unbelievable. We were handed a tired and hungry girl about 30 minutes later.

She had a bit of a rough time initially, but was able to relax after a 30 minute nap. We had two hours with her before we went to the registration office to complete adoption paperwork. That being done, we had a celebratory dinner at the Pizza Hut with a few of the families in our group. We spent the rest of the evening playing and getting to know our girl.

The doctor made rounds starting at 7:00 pm and made it to our room at 7:45. He wasn't scheduled to visit until the tomorrow, but several of the girls are a little sick). He was impressed with Eliza's skin...she's in great shape...no diaper rash or anything. He, however, promptly noticed what we did. Our girl has pretty weak muscles and clearly has been in a crib most of her short life. She has poor head and trunk control, she doesn't pull up to sitting with assistance, she slumps completely forward if she sits up, and she has a mean cough. He suggested we give her some antibiotics because her little lungs sound full of fluid. He showed some techniques to help her start getting stronger, picked her up and hugged her, and told us she would catch up developmentally within a couple of months. We have work to do.

Eliza is a sweet, sweet girl. She has been snuggling up to both of us. When she lies on her back she is most engaged...giggling and smiling if you play with her and talk to her. By the end of the night she was talking to us and seemingly happy. We've been told that day three is potentially the toughest. The girls begin to realize they are not going back t0 the orphanage and tend to have melt downs. We'll see how it goes. Now, we are rejoicing and enjoying every minute of our family time. This is amazing. Our blessings are abundant.