At 9:30 am we met our group in the lobby, boarded our bus, and anxiously rode the 20 minutes to the capital's registration office. On the way our guide was telling us the possible scenarios we might encounter regarding our child's initial reactions, and helping us to understand this day from the child's perspective. Of course we had already considered this and had braced ourselves for whatever may come.
When we arrived, two of the families were called in first because their children were already inside. The rest of us followed, and over the next hour and a half we watched as one by one, 7 new children joined their adoptive families. Violet and her orphanage-mate were the 5th & 6th to arrive. Thankfully that gave me time to regain my composure after witnessing all the heartbreaking, beautiful, challenging, and joyful moments that were taking place around the room.
We were pacing and keeping an eye on the parking lot from the glass doors. Then someone announced, "There's a van...a little boy...and a little girl!" I ran to the door and jumped for joy when I saw HER!!
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| Our first glimpse of her. |
The Moment We Met
They carried her up the stairs and through the doors then set her down. She started to cry so we gave her a round cracker-type thing then I picked her up and carried her to a chair, sat down, and started singing softly. She calmed right down. Then Curt held her and entertained her while I signed some paperwork. She was mostly just quiet and observant for the remainder of our time at the office. Praise the Lord the first and biggest transition went smoothly!
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| Sure, we can be friends if you have snacks! |
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| Not too sure about these people... |
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| Our new family member! |
Back at the hotel we've enjoyed getting to know her. She LIGHTS UP when we go down for meals. Like, literally laughing and giggling with each thing we put on her plate. She must have been fed noodles before because the moment we lifted some up with chopsticks she opened her mouth wide and tipped her head back to catch the long strings! She also likes a bottle of milk before bed. We were told to cut 2 tiny slits like an "x" at the top of the bottle to make it work better for a big kid. She CHUGS it, the entire thing, in one breath, in under 30 seconds. I'm pretty sure this is something she trained herself to do while living in the orphanage and probably having limited time to finish a bottle before the nannies came to collect it again.
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| Lots of smiles at breakfast! |
She is enjoying the small toys we brought with us. Especially the stacking cups, and a fabric balloon-ball. She is starting to smile and laugh more and more, which is the cutest thing in the world!! Today we both got a ton of smiles, and mommy is even getting HUGS!
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| Having fun with Daddy! |
As far as naps and sleeping goes...she is the easiest child I've had. You lay her down, she looks around for a few minutes then closes her eyes and falls asleep. She hardly moves. She is sleeping about 10 hours at night and takes a 2 hour nap. Awesome. Not awesome that she had to learn this from self-sufficiency at an orphanage, but awesome that we will all be well-rested as she adjusts to her new life with us! :-)
Time to go play some more... I will have to write another post in the next day or two to tell you about our trip to visit her orphanage. I'm still processing the emotions from that. It was the most heartbreaking day, but not in ways that I expected.
Thank you for your continued prayers! They are being answered! We are so thankful that the Lord has blessed us with this beautiful little girl!!
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