Gotcha Day -- It's A Girl & A Daddy's Girl at That!

Oh, where to start.  Very emotional day for all of us including the wonderful ladies from the orphanage who came here to give Maran to us.  She is BEAUTIFUL.  She looks just like a doll and has the most beautiful eyes and skin.  She is all girl from what we can tell and she has had a day of firsts. Come to find out we are the first AMERICANS that have adopted from the orphanage that she is from.  Interesting.  We will go to the orphanage on Thursday to visit with her other caretakers and to say good bye to her friends.  Especially her  BFF, Alice. 

When we went into the ADOPTION AFFAIRS OFFICE they wanted us to sign papers first before we saw her.  David and I both spotted her immediately sitting in a room to the left.  We were ecstatic.  We signed the documents and then they brought her out to us.  OH MY GOODNESS.  It was the most incredible moment ever ---it ranks number 1 along with the first time we saw our son Luke.  She was walking out to us and she immediately went for the BEAR that has made this journey with us. So Aunt Carolyn and Aunt Nancy you did a great job!  She took to David and when she was told that he was her Daddy she rubbed his face.  He crumbled and I did as well.  Through the tears we had many smiles from her.  She loved the sucker that we brought to her.  We gave her a camera and she took many pictures.  Many of them quite good.  She became extremely upset when her caretakers left.  I am not sure who was crying harder she or I.  Her name in China is SI HUI... pronounced as it is written but they call her Avay (like IVY but IVAY).  It is absolutely beautiful and it suites her perfectly.  So we had been pronouncing her name wrong the entire time.  We thought about changing her name to her name as it is pronounced now and decided that it can be her nickname.  She looks like a Maran and an Ivay.  She is very mild tempered and loves pretty things so I think I got me a girlie girl.  Let's hope my tom boy ways can be set aside for ribbons and bows.  Her eyes are deep and have so much meaning in them.  She loved the picture book that we had made of her.  She loved seeing herself inside the book.  She pointed to Luke an awful lot.  There was also a group photo of she and her buddies and she pointed to Alice quite a bit too.  It made me sad.  I hate separating them but we will get to see Alice on Thursday we hope.  I never had any doubt that she was not loved and cared for at the orphanage but if there was any doubt it was erased today.  Those ladies adore her and care for her greatly.  Even the men who came had a lot of love for her.  She, in turn, had equally as much love for them.  I know in my heart that she was loved as much as they could love her and still do their jobs.  What a wonderful group of people whom we will always be forever grateful to. 

 I love the Bear.....

 I am a Daddy's Girl....and I have his numbers already. 

 My eyes tell a lot of stories.

 I keep looking at the picture of my Brother Luke. 

 Had to have some Mommy time.... just so I can say I did it. 

 Uhm.... KFC Ice Cream!  (we never knew what we were missing did we)?

 I am so tired.  I have had a big day and my Goat is tired too.

The Chocolate Lollipop was the best.  I like chocolate so my brother and I will get along fine. 

We went to the store to pick up some things and she had a great time telling us what she wanted.  First stop was KENTUCKY FRIED CHICKEN (Yes KFC) so that she could have a cone of  ice cream.  She loved it. It was interesting.  She has the right family to LOVE ice cream I can tell you that. 

She wanted LESS things than we could imagine.  She does not have a serious case of the "WANTS".   We were told that she had probably never been in a store the size of the one we were in today andthat she was continuing to be overwhelmed.   We simply held something up and she would shake her head yes or no.  She really enjoyed the candy aisle.  She loves suckers.  She kind of fell asleep on the way back to the hotel.  We opted for a Papa John's Pizza (yes in China) and I went to get her some Rice and Soup.  She wouldn't eat either nor would she try the Pizza which may be a good thing as she really needs to have some pizza from home as I am sure she will like it.  I then gave her some potato chips.  She had never had them before and she ate the whole bag.  There's a girl after my heart!  She tells us when she needs to go potty and she loved bath time.  (Will that continue?)  She picked out a huge stuffed Goat at the store which she has carried around since she got it (see picture above).  It is a cartoon here that we are told is loved by all the Chinese children.  Her eyes lit up the moment she saw it. 

She has skyped already with her brother, her Nammy and Pop Pop  and her Aunt Peggy and she is very interested in the computer and pounding the keys.  We have yet to get her to say Hello or Hi but she will tell us Thank you in Chinese.  She loves water and went crazy over the Mickey cup we took with us to get her.  She can't make the sippy part work but that's OK because she drinks better from a cup than we do.  David is now walking around with her as she grabbed her shoes and told him something and pointed to the door.  I guess it meant "Hey, this sister needs a break from this room".  She is very quiet and very into whatever toy she is playing with at the moment.  She loved her Minnie Mouse suitcase full of toys.  Her favorite thing so far has been her hairbrush (I don't know that she has ever had one or seen one) and a bar of soap.  (Not sure about her knowledge of soap either).  We have had a few firsts today and they will be remembered.  (more on that later).    Thank you everyone!   Your comments have helped to keep us sane and have helped our morale for sure!  We go to the CIVIL AFFAIRS office again tomorrow for a ton of paperwork.  Thankfully so far the paperwork has been the easy part.  Traveling..well, not so much!