Thoughts from Nanning

I finally have the time to share our gotcha day experience and a little bit about our dear daughter who is sleeping in the crib next to our desk. Shawn is finishing his Chinese meal from room service. He has enjoyed the constant flow of Chinese food the most of anyone in the group and I'm probably second behind him. It has been tasty! I just finished my 4th cup of tea for the day. China is lovely. SO different from Oklahoma, but we have so enjoyed our time here learning a little about Selah's birth place.

So yesterday afternoon around 3:00p.m., we all loaded up on the bus and drove to the Civil Affairs Office which was like a hotel. We went to the 4th floor and went into a reception room--an empty room with wood floors. As soon as we stepped off the elevator we could hear many babies crying. One of the directors of the Civil Affairs office greeted us and thanked us for our love for these babies and announced that the nannies would begin bringing them in one at a time and calling out their Chinese names. We would then step forward and receive our child. So one by one the babies came in and one by one the room got louder and louder with crying as the nannies handed the babies to their new parents. Any crying that we parents were doing was drowned out by the wailing babies. There were 10 of us families and after the ninth baby came in Shawn and I were still left without Selah. And then her orphanage director said "Guo Si Qin", her Chinese name, and a nanny came through the door with a sleeping baby. Selah was sound asleep. At this point the room was mass chaos with pictures being taken, babies screaming (one threw up all over her mom she was crying so hard), and there was our Selah making the most peaceful transition to her new mom and dad. She didn't even stir amidst all the noise. For the next 30 minutes our two wonderful Chinese guides, Maggie and Rosa, went around from family to family with their daughter's orphanage director and answered any questions we had or told us anything specific the directors knew about our daughter. We were told that Selah had been with her foster mom until yesterday (usually they go back to the orphanage 3 weeks before gotcha day). She is called "Kung Kung", eats mostly regular food, and is just about ready to walk on her own. I think Selah is the biggest girl out of our whole group, which is amazing because she is 10 months old and all the other girls are 13 to 18 months old. She was well fed!

As we walked to the lobby getting ready to leave Shawn was holding Selah, and she opened one eye, gave us a look, and went right back to sleep. We decided she probably thought she was just having a bad dream and went back to sleep. Some white skinned strangers were taking her away! :)

So we got on the bus and came back to the hotel. As we got into our hotel lobby Selah finally woke up. She just sat up and looked at us a lot. She didn't fuss or whimper. Just looked at us. We came back to the room and put her on our bed and gave her some of her new toys. She seemed to like them. Then she wanted to get down and explore the room a little bit. She played peek a boo with Shawn and started smiling. She really liked that game. She kept coming over to him to play. She likes walking holding onto our hands but she will take a few steps on her own too. She is very curious, likes to sweetly babble, and is so sweet natured. She doesn't really favor Shawn or me. She likes to come to us both equally.

At 6:30p.m. we had to have an official family photo taken in the lobby. Most of the babies in our group had spent the past 3 hours crying. After the photo Shawn had a good bit of paperwork to do. I gave Selah a bottle using the soy formula I brought with me. The formula she had in her hometown is locally made and we aren't able to get it. She loved her bottle. Many of the babies aren't taking their bottles. They aren't used to American-style bottles.

I patted her back and she fell asleep in my arms around 7:30p.m. She woke up at 1:30a.m. crying for a few seconds until I picked her up. I put her on my lap, Shawn turned on a light and she just stuck her lower lip out and tears flowed down her cheeks. She wasn't making any noise, just tears. It was so sad! But after about 2 minutes of tears, she buried her face into her blanket and I put her back into her crib. She slept soundly until we had to wake her up at 8:00a.m.

She was in great mood when she woke up. Happy. We went downstairs for breakfast and I tried to get her to eat peaches and congee (a rice porridge). Her foster mother said she loved fruit and congee. But she would only eat noodles. She loved them!

So then today we had to take our $3100 in perfect condition US $100 bills and gifts to the nannies and office directors with us back to the Civil Affairs Lottery office. We had two different interviews. The first interview was very emotional for me. We had to sit before an official. She asked us how last night went with our daughter, why we wanted to adopt her, what were our plans for her life, and if we promised to never abandon or abuse her. Selah's orphanage director and a nanny were present for the interview too. The nanny took quite a few pictures of us with Selah during the interview (I think to show her foster mother). Then we had to sign some official documents, show our passports, and thumbprint our signatures. The ladies were very pleased when Shawn said during interview that we thought Chinese girls were very beautiful.

Selah's orphanage director gave Shawn and I a gift which was the best gift we could have been given. It was a photo album with about 10 photos of Selah taken over the past 7 months. We couldn't believe it. There are three photos of Selah with her foster mother. I am so thankful for that. I was able to send a gift with the orphanage director to give to her foster mother and was assured that I could send photos to the orphanage when we get home and they would get them to her foster mother too. This was an answer to prayer as China desires no contact between foster parents and adoptive parents. We had been told that this wouldn't be possible.

How do you thank the woman who cared for your baby for 7 months? And then lets her go never to see her again?

I need to end here...Selah is needing to be held in order to get to sleep. How blessed am I that the Lord has allowed me that privilege?