Monday, May 17, 2010

We have her! Yippee!


Hello all, it has been a very busy day! We went to a meeting in the morning and then at 2:30 we left on a bus to the civil affairs office in downtown Guangzhou. Guangzhou is a city of 13 million people so it is huge! We are staying in a very nice section of town. It was an interesting ride to the office but only about 15 mins long. Our babies had left the orphanage at 8:30am for the bus ride and play time at the office. They have never been out of the orphanage so this was a big day for them. It is only about a 3 1/2 hour ride to the city so I really don't know what they did after they got there. We walked into a big room where a large group of families were there with their babies that they had obviously just been matched with. There were lots of crying babies. I didn't expect to see other families. It was loud and hot. We were told that we would see our babies very soon. About 5 mins later the elevator doors opened and we saw 3 ladies with 2 babies in their arms. I immediately recognized Olivia from her picture but we were told that we could absolutely not go up to them we needed to wait to be presented our child. They went into a back room and about 3 mins later they brought them out one by one, verified each family that went with each baby and we were handed our sweet girl. This was nice because we got pictures of this event while we didn't think that anyone would be able to take them for us. We had about 10 mins of get to know you time before we got to talk to the nannies to ask specific questions about our child. Olivia has a rash on the back of her head, neck, and on her upper arms. The nanny said that this is because she likes to rub her head on the board in her crib. The rash on her neck was heat related because it went away after we got out of the very hot, not air conditioned building. The rash on her arm looks like ring worm so we are treating it as such. We asked if there was anything she particularly liked- they said toys that made music. We asked if there was anything that she didn't like and they said that they haven't found anything yet.
After spending several hours with her tonight at our hotel we can tell you that she love to babble, smile and has an easy laugh. She looks around like "Hey, wait a minute, where am I?" but then she seems to think "Oh well, I like this place and these people." We gave her a bath and she was fine with that and as I type she is sleeping peacefully. Let us pray that this night goes well! I will try to add a picture for you all to see!
Tons of love and rejoicing tonight!
Donna and Patrick
























4 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Donna & Patrick,

    Congratulations! We are so glad that Olivia seems to be adjusting so easily. We cannot wait to see a picture. Good luck with the hot and steamy weather. It was really sticky in February when we were there. We cannot imagine how sticky it would be now. We are really enjoying the posts and look forward to hearing more.

    Rob & Joyce Hartley

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  3. Definately a day for rejoicing! So happy for you!! That is great that you all are settling in nicely together and that she is adjusting so well. Sorry to hear about the rash I am sure it will clear up soon. Enjoy this time with your latest addition. Looking forward to pictures. Take care, Connie

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  4. Amazing!!!! Finally in your arms. Sooo happy for you!

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