Gotcha Day!!!
For those of you who do not know what Gotcha Day is that is the day adoption parents receive their child/get their child. That is why they call it Gotcha Day! We started off with breakfast which is better than Beijing's hotel. At 9:30 am, we had a meeting to kinda prepare us for our gotcha day. Then, we were to meet back in the lobby at 1:45 pm to leave to the Civil Affairs to get our children!! It was still so surreal. I wasn't really that nervous and of course, Dustin was as cool as a cucumber.
Skip ahead to a few hours.....
There are six families in our group getting their children in Guangzhou. All but two families have already adopted, so they knew what to expect. Of course we were one of the two families. The other family not only was it their first adoption but also it was their first child. I was okay on the bus ride. Not nervous, just excited. It only took us 15 minutes to get there.
We are here........
As we were downstairs in the lobby waiting for our elevator to go up, Dustin said "I just saw Sophie come in with her nannies." I was like are you sure it is her. He looked at me and said "Its not like I havent been staring at her picture 20 times a day since February." Then, it finally hit, I was getting a little nervous. I tried to look but someone got in front of her. Then, one of our guides told the nannies to wait cause the families havent gone upstairs yet. Dustin said she was wearing a hot pink dress. We got up to the Civil Affairs Office and picked our seat to wait. Then, about 5 minutes later they started calling out names. We weren't first. The first little girl came out and went straight to her mom, that was promising for us. Then, the second name was called, not us. Then, the third, not us. 4th- not us. 5th - not us. Well, I guess we are last. This whole time we were watching these families get their daughters. They all did well, except for the family who it was their first everything, their baby screamed her head off. I hope they think they werent doing anything wrong. Then, they didnt call our name. They just saw us eagerly waiting and motioned us over. I handed my camera off for some video and pictures and there she was in her hot pink dress that Dustin saw. They handed her over to Dustin. No crying. She was taking it all in. I did good, I didnt cry. I was worried if I did it may freak her out. but, I was calm yet excited. Dustin asked if I wanted to hold her- duh. We tried to give her a baby doll, she wasnt interested. We sat back down on the couch and gave her a bowl of Cheerios and she didnt do anything at first. So, I feed her a few and then, she started to go to town. She never cried. Dustin tried to get hold her again and she shook her head no. She is really smart. We had to get our passports out to do the paperwork and she pointed to my picture and said momma then looked at me. She did the same with Dustin. She has mosquito bites all over her legs, because the orphanage leaves the doors open at night. She has a cold or a respiratory infection, you can hear the rattle in her chest and she is all congested - poor thing. However, they did give us some medicine. There was a little boy there getting his sister and he came over and started hitting himself in the head and Sophie just busted out laughing. That was the first time we ever saw her smile or even her teeth. In all the pictures they gave us, she never smiled or showed her teeth. I was kinda worried there for a while that she may not have any teeth-LOL. So, the paperwork was done and it was time to get back on the bus back to the hotel.
A very big thank you to everyone who prayed for our Gotcha Day, Sophie did great. She never cried, well up to that point- we will get to that in a minute.
4pm- Back at the hotel. The agency wants you to spend the rest of the day in your room bonding with your child. They even don't want you eating outside of your hotel. So we get in the elevator to go to our room and she is still doing fine, just looking at everything. We go in the room, she is still doing good. She doesn't want me to put her down or for Dustin to hold her. So, I sit in the floor with her and start pulling out some toys. She is still not interested in the doll (I thought she liked dolls according to the update). then I pulled out a pink Minnie Mouse backpack that she loved (good job Mawmaw). She started unzipping all the zippers taking the toys I had in there out and putting them back in there. She did this pretty much the whole night. She loved the toy camera we got her, she even knows to put it up to her face and click the button to take a picture. She does know some English, they said her foster parents prepared her well. She can say mama, daddy, bye bye, hey, and no. And she will repeat anything you say. She point to herself and say "Weina." She loves looking at herself on the computer or my camera. She loves the panda that David Ryan made her at Build a Bear. It even has his voice saying " I love you, Sophie." She loves pushing the button and laughing. She has the most beautiful smile, her whole face lights up. We first got her to smile when we pulled out the stacking cups (which I recommend bringing if you are adopting) and Dustin knocked them down and she just started laughing. She was now allowing Dustin to play and sit close. Then, it was about time to eat so Dustin went across the street to get Sophie her first McDonald's. And Sophie and me just stayed in the room and played. She allows you to kiss her, but doesnt kiss back yet. Dustin wasn't gone very long. We gave her her first taste of a french fry and she loved it. She wanted more. She likes Big Macs, too. Dustin gave her some of his and she took the top bun off mine and ate it. She loves chicken nuggets. She can eat. She is just like her brother, she likes to cram all of it in her mouth. She likes to share. She will take a bite of a french fry or bread and then give it to you. She loves drinking from her sippy cup. She likes to pretend she is pouring from her sippy cup into one of the stacking cups and giving it to you. And of course, you pretend to drink it.
Eventually, she started warming up to Dustin. It took her accidentally hitting Dustin with one of the stacking cups and him acting like it hurt and it was game on. She started throwing everything at him and laughing so hard. So, David Ryan has another wrestling buddy. She is a little rough thing, you can tell she was around boys. She likes to mock everything you do, how you wipe your hands, putting sunglasses on, the way we lay in the floor, she was even pretending to dip her nuggets like her daddy. She seemed like she transitioned well. Thanks again for the prayers.
However, she did have a little crying spell. Our guide came by our hotel room to drop off her medicine. After she left, she started crying. I don't know if she was crying cause she thought she was taking her back or if she wanted to go with her.. but the crying only lasted about a minute. Then, she wanted to play and hit Dustin again. All fun and games again.
I havent gotten her to use the potty. She has a diaper on, but they say she is potty trained and let you know when she has to go, however she peed a lot in her diaper. She did fine with me changing her. Except she doesnt like her shoes off. She wont let me take them off. She loves bows (Tobie and Liz). Her Minnie Mouse backpack has a Velcro bows that you can put on Minnie on the front of the backpack and she tried putting one in her hair. So, I pulled out a zip lock bag of bows for her and she had to put a pink one in her hair. She kept it in her hair for a good while. She loves taking the bows in and out of the bag. Same thing with the band aids. She doesn't like getting wet her clothes wet ( sound familiar, David Ryan?). I have to rub her dress and get it dry if some of her water leaks out her dress.
We skyped the grandparents. She laughed for them and they got to watch her play. She even waved at them and told them hey and then waved and told them bye. She loved looking at herself on the Skype. David Ryan was still asleep when we skyped my mom and when he did wake up, he was ill. but, I think I did see a smile. He will do better this afternoon when it is not so early in the morning over there.
So far, so good.....Well, until bedtime. Again, she didn't mind me changing her diaper or her into her pjs (I think she is in a 24mo or 2t). I took her shoes off but she put them right back on herself, LOL, the girl loves her shoes. She even let Dustin pick her up, but when Dustin laid her in her crib, she started crying bloody murder. She cried like this for 10 minutes and I said lets try her in our bed (shoes still on). She still continued to cry, this went on for about 35 minutes. She didnt want Dustin putting the covers over her and us talking to her. So, I finally just picked, put her over my shoulder, and started rocking her and patting her back while in bed. After seven minutes of this, she was out. I sat up with her for awhile still rocking her to make sure she was in deep sleep. Then, she started snoring. Poor thing, you could feel the rattling in her chest. So, Dustin arched a pillow and I laid her down. Now both her and Dustin are snoring away.
I knew bedtime was going to be tough from reading other adoption blogs, but my mother instincts jumped in. Lets just hope she sleeps through the night. She is so precious though. She has some of the same mannerisms of David Ryan, God knew what he was doing when he matched us with Sophie. However, there is one thing that isnt like her brother, she takes her medicine well. She didn't fight, I just held up to her mouth and she drank it. We can't believe that our dreams and prayers came true today, it was just so surreal. We already love her so much and I hope she starts to love us soon. It is just hard to describe this feeling until you have gone through it and some of you adoption parents probably know what I am taking about. She is just the cutest and that laugh melts your heart. I can't wait for her to meet her brother and for them to play and laugh together.
Well, I am going to go to bed now while I can. Sorry if there are any grammar errors, it has been an overwhelming day. Good night.
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