Gotcha Day!! June 15th

It seemed like we both slept well last night but the morning could not go fast enough. I felt like I was being forced to eat breakfast. What a huge range of emotions from being elated to scared to so sad knowing that you were saying goodbye to your foster family as we were driving to meet you. I knew this would feel like the worst day of her life all the while being one of the best days of mine. I thought about what you must be going through as we drove through the city and I hated how sad, scared, and confused you must be feeling. Never in my life has my entire world been snatched from me; the people I know and love, people who look like me and talk like me, the foods that I love and find comfort in, smells that are familiar and make me feel at home, and my everyday sights gone in an instant. Yet that's exactly what was happening to my baby girl at this moment. Tears welled in my eyes. I prayed that we were good enough for her.

We arrived at the Civil Affairs Office with the other families and quickly filled out a small amount of paperwork that needed done while we waited for our children to arrive. Then we waited. Most of the children all came together in a van from the orphanage. So they all arrived at the same time. As soon as Ella came into the room being carried by her caregiver, I knew it was her. There was no hiding that sweet face from her Mama. She was so scared and sad. I got to hold her first but once she got ahold of her Baba, she didn't let go. Ella was not okay with what was going on. We tried food, drink, toys, you name it but nothing was good enough to help calm her down. Ava was trying so hard to give her different toys and food and then would look at me and say, “I don't think Ella wants this”. Sweet girl! Ella would calm down briefly but we definitely got our share of tears while at the Affairs Office.

Waiting for Ella to come in

Since we are on a crunch for time due to the Dragon Boat Festival, we also had to have our family picture for the Adoption Agreement. For this they needed Ella between Matt and I and they needed Ella facing forward. This was not an easy task given that Ella was latched on to Matt. She was not letting go!! But we did finally manage a picture. I'm sure there are some crocodile tears in the photo as well.

While we were getting acquainted with Ella and waiting for other families to get there pictures done we learned a little more about Ella from one of the caregivers. They told us that Ella is a very emotional little girl and to not be surprised if it takes several days of crying before she really starts to come around. They also told us that she is very observant and picks up on body language and facial expressions. They also told us that she is very stubborn. That we told them, we could already tell from the pictures we had received. Lastly, we found out that Ella's foster father passed away tragically a month ago due to a stroke. Ella was very close to him and he loved her so much. After that time Ella lived with a family member. So our sweet girl is not only going through the stress of today but also the stress of loosing her foster father very recently. That's a lot of major changes for a little girl.

After all families made it through their new family photos, we all loaded on the bus and headed to a different office for the children to have their passport photos taken. This was again something that had to be expedited due to the holiday coming up. This picture required that only the child was in the picture, both ears showing, and no crying. This was going to be another challenge. Echo assured us that the photographer was a professional and would take quick photos to get what we needed. Well Ella was not going to sit in that chair by herself. So Baba sat with her and tried his best to stay out of the photo. It was super hard to get her to look at the camera and not look like she was crying. It seemed like it took forever, but we did get a picture that the photographer was happy with.

Finally we were able to go back to the hotel so that we could get to know each other better without all the commotion. We came up to the room and Mark and Kim went to grab us all lunch. Ella whimpered quite a bit but did eat a small amount of food. Her eyes just look so sad. And her cry is the sweetest little cry. Ella did nap for a short time when she fell asleep on Matt. After she woke up we were able to have her sit on the bed without sitting on Matt so that we could play with her. See seemed to enjoy this and we started to get a little more interaction with her. At 4pm, Matt went downstairs to fill out paperwork needed for tomorrow for the adoption finalization. Matt felt okay leaving since Ella did seem to be in a little better spot and I wanted some bonding time with her without Matt around to see if I could make some progress. While Matt was in the meeting I was able to feed her some food and Ella seemed more and more content. However, just before Matt came back in the room Ella had started crying again and now I needed to go sign paperwork. At this point Ella reached for me...a first. So we decided to take her with us to sign the final paperwork. She did whimper through most of it but did okay.

Afterwards, Echo and a bunch of the guys headed out to buy food for the group to bring back to the hotel. Matt headed with them to help knowing that I needed some one on one time. By the time he got back Ella was sitting by herself on the bed really interacting with us. Playing with some toys with Ava and watching everything going on in the room.

During dinner, we got our first smile and laugh from Ella!! So precious! It was so funny because she was reclined on a pillow against the headboard but when we set up a makeshift dinner table she sat right up. She knew it was dinner time! She had a few noodles on her plate and she cracked herself up and all of us when she picked up one of the noodles by the end and started twirling it in a circle! The rest of the evening went by really smooth. Ava was having fun helping Ella by getting her things and trying to give her different toys. We just spent the evening in the hotel room relaxing and enjoying each other's smiles.