Gotchya Day!!!

We went to the fabric market in the morning, and came back about 12:45. We were leaving to meet the babies at 2:00, so we had a stress filled hour plus before leaving in which we tried to eat some noodles. Pearl posing with mushroom...

Nurit & Pearl & I at the Civil affairs office, waiting for my name to be called...looking relaxed perhaps, but very nervous and excited!

Meeting Madeline for the first time! She is simply stunning, beautiful, perfect, amazing, and the director told me also, Smart!
This was the nanny who brought her. I asked her some questions myself, but several more once Richard was available to help us. It was clear she really cared for Madeline- when she was getting ready to leave she looked very very sad- made like to kiss Madeline and offered her over for the nanny to say goodbye and she kissed her goodbye. She and the other nanny went to wait by the elevators but kept looking back and waving so I stood where they could see us and we watched them and waved back. She was waiting for the director, so they stood there quite a while, and before leaving, she ran back in and gave Madeline another kiss goodbye. She told her she wished her a happy life. I assured her (when we talked before) that I would make sure that Madeline learns Chinese and that we come to visit China often, and I will do all I can to be sure that Madeline is proud of China and of America. She said, "come next year?" I said no, probably in 2 years, but she asked if I would come to Gaozhou and I said yes, I would. She said she had worked for the orphanage for 10 years, and she said she really liked what she did. It was so clear that this was true, and that Madeline was well loved. I wish I could have comforted her but it must be so hard to say goodbye to the babies.

Our little group, plus 1!

She did not make a sound when I met her, and she did not pipe up at all on the bus or back at the hotel until I made my first attempt to change her diaper. She was not at all interested in that, so I gave up and figured, if she's not fussing, it's okay for now. So we got on with attempting to get to know each other and I was amazed that it took her almost no time at all to give me her first smile! I guess it might have been around 5:00 or so, so in just 2 hours after meeting her, I saw the first beautiful bright cheery Madeline smile!! It looks like she's chewing on the bottle with the cap on here, but actually the cap is off. She was having a fabulous time with me squeezing the bottle so the water goes up and she kept drinking a little bit as I did this.

And that is when the giggles started! Pearl's Mushroom seemed to be a big help in the whole laughing scenario as well! Who knew mushroom would prove to be so helpful!

Nurit and Glen went in search of takeout, and Pearl and I stayed behind. They gave us a call after they came back and we went to Mary & Glen's room for takeout. Madeline started drifting off to sleep after trying a little congee and after I ate a little, so we came back to our room and within just a few minutes, she was completely off to sleep. I couldn't get her to sleep in the crib though- even though it's what she is accustomed to, I think that it was just too traumatic of a day, so we'll make that change in another day or two. For now, we just barricaded the bed with pillows and the crib.