Gotcha!

We got her!!!! Oh my goodness…every bad thought I could possibly have had leading up to this moment was in vain…Our facilitators picked us up at 4:00 in the lobby and we loaded up with all of our gear…clothes to change them into, snow suits, shoes, cameras, towels and bags in case of puke…When we got to the orphanages, they sent us to the same room we visit in…we got out all of her clothes and they took us into their group rooms so that we could get pics of her rooms at the home. Those faces and scenes will be with me for the rest of my life…although I had seen it in February, it was different somehow now that I was taking her from it…more significant that I take in every detail, every face.

Once we had taken the pics, we returned to the visitation room and the kids were dressed. They began to cry when we walked in but Serge, our driver took Ellie’s hand and led her from the room. He told her to hold my hand as well and she did. Outside, we posed with Galena for a picture and then we loaded into the van for our ride back to the hotel. Not one tear on the way…lots of surprised gasps at every car and she would yell out, “dadya!” at all the men…which translates, “uncle” or “man.” She uses it every time she sees a man she doesn’t know.

When we got to the hotel, she had just a moment of reservation and she insisted on walking by herself; she is very independent! She turned around only once to see if our facilitators were with us…once inside our room, she did a slow perusal of everything…surprisingly she was not very interested in the toys. She was more interested in the sounds outside and the telephone.

We tried to feed her…she was not into any of the baby food we bought…seems to only care for the solids which is surprising and since we were not prepared for it, she ate mostly Cheerios and crackers for dinner tonight. I also showed her some video of our visits at the orphanage…she heard the music from the music lessons and began clapping her hands and did not seem sad at all…

Then, I said the word for bath and she ran to me!!! She would have climbed into the tub with her clothes on if we let her…I had to hold her back until Adam got in there to get her clothes off while I was filling the little tub! She immediately began to pour the water over face and giggle and as I sit here, she is still in there playing and giggling. If Adam or I leave the room she yells for us and it is the sweetest sound. She is completely happy! Fell asleep next to me in our bed at 9:30…I picked her up and moved her to the crib…Not one tear yet! Gotcha never felt so good.