Travel Journal
March 21, 2013 - Gotcha Day!
I think this video pretty much sums up our feelings toward the day.
We'll post pictures first, because that's what most of you are waiting to see!
We met Annie at about 11:00 this morning. They were running late, and we had heard about another Nanyang family this week who had to go back to the hotel without their little one on Gotcha Day. We were starting to wonder if that would happen to us as well.
Annie was pretty teary when they handed her over to Alaina. Quite different from Dayna's stoic response. It didn't take long for her to stop crying, but she started all over again when it was Daddy's turn to hold her. Dayna came to the rescue with a tissue for her tears and some cheerios for her tummy.
Our girl has curly hair! That's right...curls just like her Mama. We had wondered from some of her pictures, but it's true. A curly headed Chinese girl. She's also pretty snuffly and congested, and she has some sort of sore on her mouth (we were told dry skin.) We'll need to get some Vaseline for that soon. (A wonder, with everything else we packed, that we didn't think to bring Vaseline.)
She was bundled in about 3 thick layers, and we suspect she may have gotten sick on herself on the drive here. We resisted the urge to drop her directly into the bathtub when we got back to our room. Instead, we slowly peeled back her layers a bit at a time. Kind of like unwrapping this amazing Christmas present!
Dayna fed her a boiled egg (which she seemed to love) and read her a story. Annie seems to like the stacking cups and the linking chains. The first thing she did with her stacking cup was drink from it. So, I guess we've already had our first "tea party."
After her egg, we did go ahead and give her a bath. She was hesitant at first, but quickly settled down and enjoyed playing in the tub with her big sister. We got her clean, clean, clean!
We noticed at this point that her back is covered with Mongolian spots. Dayna had one when we got her, but this seems to be a lot more pronounced. It's nothing to worry about, just notable that she seems to have so many.
After we got her all clean, Annie and Alaina snuggled down for some noodles and a bottle of warm water with a little sugar. (Doesn't make sense to us, but that's her routine, and we learned with Dayna not to get off routine.) She was resistant to go down for a nap, but Alaina stayed close and sang to her for awhile. She drifted off and slept for about two hours. Right now, Dayna and Annie are playing on the bed with the stacking cups. Things seem to be going pretty well for now. We occasionally get some smiles and a rare giggle out of her. But for the most part, she's just taking everything in and making sure we aren't out of her sight.
Prayer Requests:
• Tomorrow will be a very long day (almost 4 hours each way) to Annie's city to apply for a passport. We're hoping to visit the Orphan Care Center (Foster Care) where she was living, but we're not completely sure we'll be able to. We'll need patience and stamina to make this long trip the day after we met.
• For Dayna to know where she fits in our family, and be assured that she's very important and that we love her. (Sharing the attention is a bit rough at times.)
• Not a super huge deal, but our internet connection is spotty, and the computer is being a little persnickety. This connection to home is so valuable to us.
• Annie's congestion to clear up
Praises:
• We have our girl!!!!!