Gotcha Day - 4/21!

GOTCHA, OLIVIA!  Wow - where to start.  It is hard to put into words what just happened.

Finally, after waiting ALL DAY, it was time for us to leave the hotel around 2:30pm.  Before we left our hotel room, we said a little prayer before we walked out.  That seemed to calm my nerves.

Our guide/guardian angel, Vicky, was waiting for us in the lobby and received a phone call shortly after we saw her.  It was Olivia's orphanage director saying that they were in the city!  It would take us about 10 minutes to get to the Civil Affairs Office, but we would still arrive before them.

Big Sis is excited!

 On the way!  While we were on the way, Ansley was the only one talking.  Philip and I were pretty much silent all the way, except for responding to Ansley's questions.

We have waited almost 8 years for today!!  Let's do this!

Vicky had warned us that the building was under renovation, and she wasn't kidding.  It was a very unassuming building where we pulled into the parking lot and got out.  Vicky took us up this exterior elevator, through a construction zone to the 7th floor.  The adoption center used to be on the 3rd floor, but during the construction, they moved to the 7th floor.  It was very quiet while we were there.  We walked down a long hallway and found a room to wait.  We were getting everything out of our backpack, and all of a sudden Vicky said, "She's here!"  There wasn't a lot of time to get any video at first, but we did get some still shots.

The orphanage director (male), vice director (female), and driver (male) drove her 6 hours.  They were beaming from ear to ear and taking a lot of pictures themselves.  They said that she was the last "healthy" child at the orphanage, and they only had 12 left with special needs.  You can tell that they love her very much, and she was well taken care of.  In fact, the female worker said that every morning, the male director would get Yu Yu first thing on a walk outside.  And, yes, they call her Yu Yu in the orphanage, so keeping Yu as her middle name was the right thing to do.  :)  We think she had on all new clothes, or newer clothes, except for her shoes.  We are going to give the clothes back tomorrow, so that they can use them for other children.  We also think that they gave her a haircut today before they left.

They told us that she loves to snack and especially loves sweets.  She still takes a bottle twice per day, and she did not have a crib mate.  They bathe her twice per day.  We asked how they comfort her, and they said that she is really happy.  If she gets upset, they hold her for a little while and then she is fine.  They also told us that they "prepared" her for this and showed her the photo album that we sent.  They brought it back, along with the lovey and camera that hadn't been opened.

We signed paperwork, took some pictures, and signed more paperwork.  We had a chance to ask a few questions, but we will have the chance to ask more tomorrow.  They said that she's quite sassy, so she'll fit right in.  :)  She does have a little cold, so we'll keep an eye on that.  She also has a few scratches on her face where she scratched herself.

The workers were also mesmerized by Ansley, and one of them wanted to hold her as you can see from the above picture.  I think Ansley is getting a little tired of the attention.

Sisters!

 Family of 4!

She is just precious, and so far, so good.  She wasn't quite sure what to think of Philip at first, but she is warming up to him now.  She and Ansley are fast friends, and Olivia is currently watching Ansley play.  We haven't had many tears so far (no smiles either); we are just waiting for that to happen.  She's still checking us out.  She is loving the Goldfish, Cheerios, and Puffs that we brought along.

Her feet are long and skinny.  I brought 3 different sizes of shoes:  5, 6.5, ad 7.  I think she is going to be in the 5-6 range.  She has on a 12-18 month pajama set from Gymboree right now which appears a little short.  I think she is going to be in the 18-24 month size range, but we'll try on more clothes tomorrow.  I didn't want to press my luck with a lot of wardrobe changes.  Her fingers and toes are really long, and she is pretty dark complected.

We have many emotions swirling through us right now, but one thing is for sure.  We are blessed, so blessed.  Your prayers have been felt, and we appreciate them more than you know.

We'll try and update more tomorrow.  We have to go back to the same building tomorrow morning around 9am to sign more papers, but I think that is all on the "set" agenda.

Signing off for now,
Jill