GOTCHA Day! 10/19

GOTCHA Day!!!

(As a friend calls it: God Ordained This Child's Happy Adoption Day)

We landed in Beijing late on Saturday 10/18. We thought we would have Sunday to relax but our driver said we would be going to get Maddie the next morning! I couldn't believe it! We didn't sleep much at all that night.

We all woke up around 5AM and enjoyed a very nice buffet breakfast. Our guide and driver showed up around 9AM and we headed to Maddie's orphanage. We were asked to wait in the waiting room while the director showed up. We were a little early. Then we were brought to the office. One of Maddie's caregivers brought her in and I know my heart skipped a beat or two or even more. I can't describe the feeling of seeing your child brought in to you after 8 months of waiting. Even with an out of date photo I knew it was her! They brought her right to me and I knelt down to hold her. She immediately grabbed for my face. She was, and still is, very intrigued by faces. Colby had my old camera and he took some photos. Mike took photos with our camera. Eventually we all held her, including Colby. All he said was, "She's too heavy".

From very early on Maddie would stare at us, right in our eyes. Her eyes looked so sad but yet so curious, She knew something was going on. That things were changing for her. She wasn't sure what to make of everything so she just took it all in. We gave her a little Minnie Mouse which she seemed to like. But mostly we just held her. We also had to sign a paper to take custody of her for the day. A 24 hour "trial" period. Then we were able to take her to the hotel.

The first day was a little bit of a blur. After we left the orphanage we went to eat at a KFC. We all thought that was funny because one of the first restaurants we ate at in Russia was a KFC. Since Gotcha Day we have had KFC quite a bit. We also went to a WalMart to buy a few snacks, PullUps, and a stroller. Our guide, Alice, was amazing and with her help, and a little help from some other customers, we had what we needed.

Overall, we had a busy, emotion-filled day. We finally saw our Maddie! We finally HAD our Maddie! We still had more paperwork to do but we HAD HER!!!