Gotcha Day!

9/18/06 Pre-Gotcha

After a really not so bad sleep, we woke up to Gotcha Day! It was an early start as our check-on luggage had to be outside our door at 6am. We took advantage of the early wake-up, along with all the others, to grab breakfast and discuss the excitement that is about to happen. We all seemed to be in that pre-gotcha daze. Unbelievable.

It is surreal. I write this, with Mel pacing behind, at 15.00 waiting in the hotel in Nanchang. It was a pleasant flight once again with a few bumps of turbulence. Some of us were reading, others were chatting. All in all it was your normal flight. Then the bus ride from the airport to the hotel. Meet here, be there. Do this and we’ll do that. Wow. Is this really going to happen? The butterflies are flittering and the nerves get a bit tighter. Are we ready?

Oh, yeah. It’s 15:00 now. Gotcha is at 16:00! OMG. OMG. OMG.

9/18/06 Post-Gotcha

16.20. We are waiting to get into the room. The babies were in there and we knew. We were then informed that we will be called individually to get our child. Our child. What a concept! It is still amazing. We were the 4^th to be called, and Linda was placed into Mel’s arms. Mel was tearing up, I was just awed. Happy just does not describe the feeling. Just freakin’ amazing. I knew this day was going to come.

Mel

got to hold Linda for a few minutes before I did, and both of us had the same experience. Linda did not cry at this time. Linda was more amazed at what was going on. You could see the fear growing in her little face. Blank stares began to take over the look of wonderment. I was now going to experience the beginnings of attachment. Mel also noticed this.

We headed up to the room as we only had a couple of hours before we had to return and do paperwork! Talk about moving the process! We were told the children were very hungry as it was a long trip for them to make. Linda began to shake a little. Cold? Scared? I placed my money on scared. She would not eat. She would be happy with Mel for a bit, then with me for a bit. This probably did not help much, but at the time it’s whatever makes her happy. Then the crying began. Crying and shaking, the poor thing was at her limit. I took her and began walking around. Out of the room and into the hallway. On my way out I asked Mel to give me a blanket. Linda snatched it immediately and I walked up and down the corridor. After a couple of trips she began to calm down, so I entered the room and sat down in a chair. Holding her, she fell asleep. (Yes! Score one for the new Dad!)

We had peace for about 15 minutes, and then she woke up. It did not take long for her to realize things have not changed and began to cry again. We tried to feed her again. No go. Again, back to the walking. I bit better, but still not good. We went for the Baby Bjorn carrier. Amazingly she was ok with it and we headed out the door. Whimpering and shaking we walked and headed down the elevator. In the lobby Linda calmed down a bit and started to look around. Outside we went. Linda was content once again. She was looking around and we had two Chinese people come up and look at her and give us a couple of big smiles. We headed back knowing we had a short time before the paperwork signing expedition. Linda started to whimper and shake again in the elevator. We got back to the room and she had settled down once again.

I sat on the floor while Mel was holding Linda on the bed. The little keys we had given Linda as her first toy seems to be doing a good job. The something caught our attention about the same time, and we got a bottle. Linda final decided to feed 10 minutes before the paperwork gathering! Nice timing, eh? Down she sucked that bottle. A bit too fast it appeared, as she decided to deliver a little bit of it back to us. We cleaned her up and took her downstairs.

At the paperwork signing, this is for the adoption registration within the province, I did the writing while Mel held and signed. I took breaks and soon discovered our little one is a wee bit ticklish. She broke a smile! OMG! It was amazing to see that and hear her giggle. Mel and I were so thrilled. By the end of the session, Linda was nodding a bit. Oh, she was so tired. You could see it in her eyes. We headed back to the room.

Mel gave Linda a quick sponge bath. Linda was fine and actually started to nod off. She was turning into that sack of potatoes. I took the handoff and began the drying process. I was christened with the first spontaneous pee attack! No major damage. We got her cleaned and dried. Once diapered, the little girl was lying there just about to get her jammies on when she passed out. Linda was dead tired. We dressed her up as she flopped around like a wet noodle. We put her to bed. (The “crib” or “bed” will be elaborated upon later, btw.) Asleep Linda is while I type this and Mel begins to doze off. Room service should be here shortly as we have not eaten since the airplane trip to Nanchang.

Pleasant dreams all! We had a very wonderful first few hours with our daughter Linda and cannot wait for more days and years to come. Tomorrow we got to the civil affairs office to get that adoption registration complete!