Gotcha Day!!

Gotcha Day~ February 18^th at 9pm

Headed out to meet our baby girl

What a beautiful, joy filled day!  We have our Ava and she is ours forever!!  We met Echo, our escort and one other family and left the hotel around 8:30am this morning to meet our children. We actually did not meet our children at the civil affairs office as we had anticipated. Due to the New Year celebration, we got to go the orphanage to meet them!  We were so excited about this because not very often do they allow families even near the orphanages in China.  And you won't believe me, but the orphanage was beautiful with a huge, well groomed yard/park which was all fenced in with a guard at the gate who has to let you in.  There were several big buildings on the campus and we met Ava in a meeting room.  If my daughter had to be in an orphanage I'm thankful that it was a clean, well maintained one. Us and 2 other families received their children at the same time. One of the other families was a Holt family from Overland Park who received a 4 year old little girl. And the other family, who we didn't actually meet received a little boy around 5-6 years old. We were not allowed to tour any of the other buildings, but we feel so much better knowing that Ava was in a place like that when it could have been so much worse.  We learned that this particular orphanage has over 1000 kids that need a home. We also learned that this orphanage is so well known for it's care that people will sometimes leave their child at the gate because they know that the orphanage can provide better care than they can. That story broke my heart and I can't imagine ever being put in that position to have to make a decision. Matt and I had talked previously that we wondered if we would recognize Ava when we met her since it had been so long since we had seen pictures. But we knew Ava the minute she was brought into the meeting room. She seems very healthy, clean, and well fed.  She definitely has attached to her care taker as there were lots of tears shed and she did not want to come to either Matt or I for a while. In all honesty I was frustrated with the care giver because she wouldn't hand Ava over fast enough for me!! But I do think that Ava and the caregiver were strongly bonded and she knew this was most likely her last chance to see her and hold her. Once we did get Ava in our arms, she cried and cried. She has no idea what was going on. But she eventually calmed down with some walking around, eating gerber blueberry treats, and drinking a bottle.  She was so much calmer by the time we left that she fell asleep in Matt's arms on the ride back to the hotel. Perfect!    

Our first family picture

 

The orphanage gave us some beautiful gifts as well. It's obvious she was very loved. We received a gorgeous, hard bound photo album with lots of pictures of Ava as well as pics of the orphanage. We also received a glass tea mug in celebration of the orphanages' 100^th birthday. They sent with us a new outfit as well as the clothes she was wearing, a package of diapers, and her current formula. They gave Ava a gift box with some traditional tokens from her birth year. Along with these gifts they sent a DVD from the orphanage. I am anxious to watch this to see what's on it.

Outside the orphanage

After getting back to the hotel, Echo offered to pick us up lunch which we ate in the hotel room and then we spent the rest of the day was spent getting to know each other.  Lots of hugs and kisses, looking at and mimicking each other, eating, naps, and playing. For lunch Ava ate some of the fried rice and the stuffing part of pork dumplings. Not a lot of crying since we left the orphanage, but you could tell that she is not completely comfortable yet. Early in the afternoon, she would look down a lot and not at our faces. She also has quite the pouty look. We went on our first shopping trip this afternoon to get a few supplies. Thankfully, we were able to guess pretty well- the size 18 months clothes fit her almost perfectly. The other Holt family didn't bring near as many clothes just because she is a little older and it would have been harder to guess the size. We were all able to find supplies we needed. (Other than soda and especially diet soda. We settled for regular Coke. You know, the major decisions in life. ;))

This evening you can tell that she is getting used to us and more comfortable already~seeing smiles and even laughs this evening at supper.  Ava thinks her Lau Lau (grandma) is pretty funny.  :)  Ava is going back and forth between all three of us this evening without any fuss.  She seems to be very content and is taking in everything.  She literally watches every move we make and checks out everything. We're guessing that she is very smart ;)  Tonight she fell asleep in my arms.  Life couldn't be any more perfect right now.  Tomorrow we are leaving at 8am to fill out our adoption finalization paperwork.  Then her adoption will be official.  I guess that do it that way so that you have 24 hours to back out after meeting the child.  Yeah right!!  They could not pry her out of our arms after today!! We are so in love with our Ava Tian. I've never felt love like this...THIS must be what it means to be mommy and daddy.