Gotcha Day

Monday, July 27th, we met our little Mei Mei. Such a long awaited day for us, yet a day of confusion and sadness for our little girl. Her little world was turned upside down. This is what I wrote on our facebook page on Gotcha Day:

Adoption is hard. It is beautiful, but it is hard. Mei Mei was loved and well taken care of at her orphanage, which is a wonderful blessing. But there is no future there. After today she will be an orphan no more. She will have a mother and a father, brothers, sisters, grandparents, uncles, aunts and cousins. My heart hurts for her, but I have joy and hope also, our God will bring beauty from these ashes.




We had a half a day to spend before it was time to meet our guide and driver, and head to the Center for Intercountry Adoption of Hubei Province. We ventured out in search of a laundry (no luck), but found a CVS (we think??), and got lunch. We still had plenty of time, so we went swimming at the hotel pool.

But finally it was time to head out to meet Mei Mei.




As we walked inside, we saw immediately Mei Mei was already there! Mr A was ready with the camera (thank you!!!). She had been told I am her mama, but you could tell she was struggling to understand. She wanted to stay with her nanny, and it was so clear they loved each other very much.




After I picked up Mei Mei, her nanny left the room (which I wasn't all that happy about, I didn't want her to just 'disappear'). I think Mei Mei was really overwhelmed, and probably very tired from her long journey from the orphanage, and fell asleep in my arms.

The nannies brought us a photo album for Mei Mei. It has photos from her time in the orphanage, and is such a treasure. The nanny who was holding her at Gotcha Day, held her in many of the photos in the album, too.




I needed to fill out some paperwork, so both of her nannies were able to hold Mei Mei a little longer. Even though we would see each other again the next day, I think we all were crying by the end of our time there.

We needed to stop by the police station for a passport photo before heading back to the hotel, and that is where Mr A snapped the very first photo of this blog post. Mei Mei was so sad, but did let me comfort her, which was a huge answer to our prayers.




We ended up ordering room service on our first night together. Mei Mei ate rice congee and had a bottle of formula. She was fairly subdued, very clingy to me, and then finally fell asleep on me.

Such an amazing day, full of emotions...

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I am going to try to document our first days together in China. Mei Mei is doing so well, and we are in love! She is very affectionate, silly, and full of spunk. Still needs to know where mama is at all times, but I am able to go to the bathroom without her now ;-)

We have two more full days here in China, then will travel back to the States. If wifi works, and my (!) two year old is happy, I will try to post more. If you don't hear from us, just pray we make our connection in Beijing, and that everyone would travel well.

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