GOTCHA DAY--Here's Olivia!!

Well we woke up this morning - exhausted from an abbreviated night's sleep. We all did ok though knowing we were getting to see Olivia today. The weather is completely opposite here. The cold front is holding off for a few days so we should see 80's for the entire week. Of course I frantically re-packed and took out a lot of warm wether clothes when I thought it was going to be cold earlier.....guess you'll see me in the same few outfits in the pictures :)




We had an all too brief stop at WalMart for supplies. We endured many stares as we went through the store- some things were in english- most were not!! The neatest thing was an escalator for you & the shopping cart to go between different levels. Of course it took to the very end to find the baby section so we missed a few items. Enjot these photos- I was told later photos are forbidden in WalMart! I'm not sure what will happen if they catch me- but I got away with it for now. :)



A few minute drive away we stopped at a hotel were the Civil affairs office is located on the 4th floor. It kind of felt like they were trying to hide this exchange of children away from their country. Our bus dropped us off at the rear entrance. We were shuttled into an official room with no chairs. We had to wait for a few minutes since all the children from our group had not yet arrived.

Then- we saw her in the holding room- our Olivia!!!!!!!!!!!



She had the picture pillow we had sent her with the family picture on it!! Mike & I started crying as we realized we were finally face to face with the little girl we had been praying for for over 3 years!! It is so hard to describe how that felt. They then brought the girls in one by one & called out their Chinese name. We then went up to get them- and suddenly my arms were no longer empty. Some children cried- one little girl cried for over 1 hour - I felt so sorry for her mother!! Olivia never let out a whimper-she was bright eyed & alert-she must have got a nap oi the 6-8 hour drive over from her orphanage. She watched every one and was interested in all that went on in the room. She wanted to crawl and explore. You could just see the gears going in her head as she wanted to explore everything around her. I think we have our work cut out for us - for I fear she will be into everything all the time!! I still wonder how Belle's gonna handle her exploring into her territory.



She is tiny as I expected- she can't weigh more that 17-18 pounds. The size 9 months are big on her girth wise but getting short in the legs. I 've never had a skinny kid before- once my kids caught up from being premature- they always plumped up! This seems very different





We spent a quite day bonding with her and a quiet meal in the hotel restaurent. We noted others went out with their children to nearby restaurants. Mike & I are homebodies by nature- but we really liked not fighting the noise & crowds to eat out. We had the entire restaurant in the hotel to ourselves- so she was quite doted on by the waiters. They would run in and pick up her dropped toys before we even had a chance to. She really does seem to love toys that make sounds! Anything that makes noise seems to amuse her.


Well- need to get her down for nighttime since she missed a nap- talk to you all soon