Gotcha Day!

We are still partly on US time.  We are ready for bed at 4pm and waking up at 2 or 3 am. Gotcha Day morning Katie and Dan were both up at 2 am.  Well then I was up.  If you know me I am a sleeper but we went to bed at 5 pm the night before and well it was gotcha day!  I was excited.  Since it was 2pm US time we ooVoo'd with Bailey and Karen.  Then we were counting down the minutes until the breakfast buffet opened at 6:30 am.  That gave us something to do and we enjoyed a nice breakfast.  At 10:30 we meet our guide and one other family and went to the bank to exchange some money for Chinese money.  Then we came back to the hotel.  Dan took Katie to the pool and I got things ready in the room.  Finally we met in the lobby at 2pm.  We took a van with one other family and our guide to the Guangdong Civil Affairs Office.   Our guide told us it was going to be very busy and that about 20 families were getting their babies.  We went into this big room..gotcha moments were happening all around us.  We sat down on a couch to wait our turn.  Our guide told us that Yang Cai Yao wasn't there yet.  That they were stuck in traffic and would be about 25 minutes.  The other family with us had there gotcha moment and I took pictures for them.  As we sat there waiting for our baby we probably watched about a dozen gotcha moments.  I wasn't nervous until she wasn't there and I had time to think about it.  I started getting hot and sweaty and sick to my stomach.  What if she didn't like us?  What is she didn't come to us?  Then we saw her arrive....the Nanny brought her in and they went into another room.  Our guide called us up.  They brought her out and I patted my chest and said "Mama" and she came right to me.  Katie was so excited to give her a lollipop.  That was our strategy in case she didn't like us.  LOL.  She loved that lollipop.  They told us that she was quiet, shy, and very serious.  We finished up our paperwork and went back to the hotel room.  She loved the dolly and stuffed doggie we brought with us.  She was very quiet and very serious but after we got back to the room I said "Mama" to her and she repeated it in this sweet little voice.  I got her changed into a new dress and a new headband and off we went to dinner.  It was pouring rain so we went back to the restaurant Food Street in the hotel.  I got sweet cream corn and crab soup and Julia couldn't get enough if it.  She also loved the noodles.  She probably would have just kept on eating.  We had to cut her off at one point.  During dinner her little personality started to come out and we got some smiles.  We were all exhausted and asleep by 8pm.  What a wonderful day!

 Enjoying Starbucks while we wait.

 Off to the Civil Affairs Office

 The Eckers....The family traveling with us.

 Nervously waiting for Julia to come out.

 GOTCHA

 First photo as a family of four.

Katie is being amazing.  She is so in love with her baby sister.