Gotcha!

And now, the moment we've all been waiting for…we met our girl! 

At 1:20, we left the hotel for the government office.  Lu Xin was supposed to arrive around 2:00 with three other children who were also meeting their families today.  The first child to arrive was a darling nearly-three year-old girl.  It was so difficult to watch her fear as she met her family and her nannies left.  She finally allowed her dad to hold her but didn't stop crying the entire time she was in the office.  Then two darling boys came with their nannies and met their families.  One of the boys was intrigued by his dad's iPad which helped their bonding considerably!  The other looked nervous but was not crying.  

At 2:45, Lu Xin finally arrived and had to go potty immediately upon arrival (I'm sure I would too after a 4-5 hour drive).  She had her photo album that we had sent and was not about to let go of it.  Steve and I, however, were not as interesting as the album.  It was obvious that the orphanage staff had tried to prepare her but…I don't know how you prepare someone for that kind of a change all of a sudden.  She showed us photos in the album and who her big brothers and big sister are and even who her Mama and Baba are as long as we didn't touch the album because it. was. hers.  Other things that were hers were her scarf, her coat, her hat and her juice.  

When it was time to go upstairs for the family photo, the nannies tried to talk her into holding my hand but she was having none of it.  But she would sit with us for the photo (and I believe made the V for Victory sign in the photo…we'll see tomorrow).  After the photo, the nannies again tried to get her to go with us but, seeing that she wouldn't, the nannies disappeared.  Poor Lu Xin was terrified.  It was heart-breaking.  She was screaming, crying and kicking as we got into the van to drive back to the hotel.  All the way to the hotel, she called for her favorite nanny.  She melted into me with her crying and looked pleadingly into my face and asked again and again for her nanny.  Sigh.

Back at the hotel, we got into the room and she warmed up very quickly.  Apparently Steve and I are pretty funny at times because within a few minutes she was smiling and within an hour she was giggling up a storm.  How grateful we are for her fun, chatty personality.  We went to get dinner (noodles!) to bring back to the room and she fed herself and us dinner (which may have included a sweet bag of Trix).  It reminded us of Eli.  He would always share whatever food he was eating.  Sweet kiddos. 

After dinner, she wanted a bath and washed her own hair and body innumerable times until the water got cold.  Then she put on her pjs (4t is a bit big but we are guessing 3t is tight…she loves to eat!) and her boots from the nannies and we played for a while.  Before we left, Grace, Noah and Eli made a video of themselves dancing to a Chinese children's song.  She played it over and over and danced and sang with them.  Love!

At 7:00, we started getting ready for bed…brushing teeth (new experience for her, I think), going potty 400 times, reading books, praying, songs.  And then, she talked and attempted to climb out of her crib and go to the potty and talked and talked and talked and sang for two hours and 45 minutes while I hummed "Baby Mine."  We finally were successful in outlasting her but I'm not sure I'll have much of a voice tomorrow. :)  

I suppose I better hit the sack since I only had 5 hours of sleep last night and who knows how tonight will go! :)

Love you all!  Thank you for your prayers.  Keep em coming!

Mandy and Steve