Great Wall

Great Wall

Monday, February 17, 2014

Day 4: GOTCHA DAY!!!

WE HAVE MILA!!! WE HAVE MILA!!! Can we shout it from the rooftops! WE HAVE MILA!!!  Today was the day!  And man has it been incredible!  Guess this should start at the beginning.  Last night was the longest night ever!  We both laid awake most of the night and worried about what the day would bring.  Getting ready in the room after our alarms went off was a very surreal experience.  Both of us were secretly freaking out but neither one wanted to voice it.  So we just calmly got ready and headed out to meet Lily and the Beiker family in the van out front.

We had to drive about 30 minutes to the Center for Intercountry Adoption of Hubei Province building which was kind of just a tall concrete office building and the Adoption center was on the 3rd floor.  When we got out of the van,  we both had to take a minute because our hearts we beating about 10,000 times per minute.  When we got on the elevator to go upstairs, we were both just thinking how crazy it was that we would be finally meeting her in a few minutes!  The doors opened to a large meeting room with a smaller kids play area off to the side.  As we crossed the room, we could see a few caregivers and kids playing in the room.  Bobby had a better view and looked in the room and said, "I see her, there's Mila! She's in there!"  And there she was!  Rocking on a plastic rocking horse just looking like a little angel sitting there waiting for us!  So we are very grateful for the ability to easily record what happened next on video because without that, we aren't for sure anyone would believe how freaking amazing this little girl is!  She was just a little hesitant at first when we walked in but then her care giver reminded her that we are her mama and baba and almost immediate she started calling us mama and baba!  So freaking awesome!  Luckily we had planned some sweet toys to have as ice breakers so we quickly got out some bubbles which she took to immediately!  She loved playing in the bubbles we blew and she also wanted to make her own bubbles right away.  Words can not express how our hearts were feeling as we watched her play and knew that she was ours!  Right away we could tell how active she is and easy to get along with.  She was laughing and jumping and swinging her arms and running around the room playing with us!  She even started playing peek-a-boo with Baba right away.  We had also heard what a great eater she was so we brought goldfish and Sunkist fruit chews.  Unfortunately, her chinese pallet must not be in tune with these American snacks yet because she quickly rejected both upon first tasting.  Oh well, we will work on finding what she likes!  So while Larkin continued to play and get to know her, Bobby was able to take a few minutes to take with her caregiver from the Orphanage who was very knowledgable about Mila and how to take care of her.  First off, she gave us an AMAZING photo album filled with tons of pictures we had never seen before of her from when they first found her up to the present point.  Also, it had the note from her birth parents she was found with, and some info about her daily routine and things she liked.  The orphanage also gave us a beautiful gold plate with a pressed pictured of the orphanage building on it as a thank you to us for adopting Mila.  We also got a large bag of goodies prepared by the foster mom of all of Mila's favorite foods and drinks!  Definitely and advantage to get this kind of insider info.  Finally, we were able to exchange email address's with her so that we can stay in touch and we can send updates on Mila to them!  There was one document we had to sign basically making us Mila's guardians for the next 24 hours until the adoption was finalized.

When it was time to go, we thanked everyone and packed up all of Mila's goodies and Mila and headed back out to the van.  So weird this time to have her finally with us!  She was just a doll in the car and sat right in Larkin's lap and looked out the window as we drove about 20 minutes to a place where we had to get her passport photo taken for her flight home!  It was weird to be just newly made parents and have this little one that we are now responsible for.  Bobby got to carry her into the office.  While we were in line, she kept saying something in Mandarin and our guide finally heard her and said "Oh she is saying she needs to go potty."  Great!  She can say she needs to go but then we have no idea what she is saying.  First obstacle hits us right in the face.  After the picture, we headed to the bathroom and learned interesting lesson #2...Chinese people dress there kids in multiple layers of very thick clothing to go outside in the winter.  So in the middle of the bathroom, Larkin is frantically trying to peal all of Mila's pants layers off of her when I guess it took too long because Mila goes over and squats over the toilet and pees!  Luckily she had a diaper on so there was no clothing change needed.  But that is one thing that we were saying we wanted to change right away...less layers.

In the van ride home, dear sweet Mila fell asleep in Bobby's arms which made him the proudest Baba ever!  She is so cute!!  The rest of the day was spend basically getting to know Mila in the hotel room.  She is a girlie girl and loves the purse and plastic jewelry we brought her.  She also loves the platform at the window sill and loves to look out at the city.  She is also very talkative and often makes loud statements and sings in Mandarin!  So adorable!  And to Bobby's absolute delight, it looks like she is going to be an Apple fan girl because she had immediately taken to "her" iPad we brought for her.  Her favorite app is playing matching games with a monkey.  We also, headed out to the mall for dinner and we greeted by many curious onlookers who were wondering what two white people were doing with a Chinese baby.  Probably with biggest thrill of the day was when we got to Skype with grandma and we got Mila to exclaim "Hi Ni Ni" to her over the call.  Could not have been happier with that moment.

So for now, all is well.  We just bathed her and she is playing with her jewelry on the bed.  Hopefully she sleeps well tonight because Mama and Baba need so sleep pretty badly!