Gotcha

Well, today went better than we could have ever hoped. We left for the Civil Affairs office around 9:30 and got there where there was a group from Spain who were getting their babies just before us. It was chaos with all of the families and all of the crying babies. Veronica prepped us on the way over how it would all go down. The babies would be in a back room and they would call out a babies name and the girl's family would go up and get their baby, show passports to make sure everything synced up and be give their baby. Luckily, the Civil Affairs office was only 20 minutes away so we didn't have a lot of time to dwell on the trip over there.

When we got there and into the room, we could see the nannies in the adjoining room with our babies. Luckily, someone handed me a tissue because it was definitely water works when I saw them back there waiting for us. My Dad had a problem with his allergies. There must have been flowers somewhere in the building hidden away I guess.

I couldn't tell you where we were in line with the other families, but it was definitely after a few families received their daughters. Allen spotted Amelie right away as the little girl in blue pajamas who was being so good and not crying at all.

Eventually, they called Amelie's name and just like that, handed her to us. She came straight away and still did not cry. We had brought her a toy of a little ducky rattle and I wore the homemade beaded necklace we made just for her to help soothe her amidst all the chaos. Seems like we didn't need to calm her down after all. She was mainly curious about all of the goings on and seemed focused on looking at everything and everyone in the room. Her eyes did keep coming back to Allen and I to try to sum us up. Soon, we sat down with her. Papa was making some phone calls to Gin Gin and Pop Pop (Allen's parents), Granny Great (my Nana), Amanda (my sister-in-law) and Micah (my brother). It was so wonderful to get to share with loved ones that we were finally holding our precious Amelie.

Amazingly, the nanny came back over to us and handed us the disposable camera that we had sent in the care package to the orphanage. Part of the care package was for the orphanage and part was just for Amelie. We cannot wait to get these pictures back and see Amelie during her life before we got to meet her. They also gave us the plastic key ring we gave to her in which we put a picture in each key (one of Allen, one of me and one of Amelie). She seemed to be very familiar with it and clutched it the whole ride back to the hotel. On the way back, we found that she loved to hold on to things in both hands. Her dilemma is, which object do I put down to grab the next object? We gave her some water on the ride back. She was clicking the bottle with the bottle top for a while. She seems to like the clicking noise. But then, we gave her the keys, so down goes the bottle top. Then, she spots the cell phone and wants to hold it from every angle.

We get back to the room and change her diaper right off. Seems like it hadn't been changed in quite a while. She started to cry when being on the diaper pad for a little while. As soon as I picked her up and held her, she quieted down. Allen read "I Love You Like Crazy Cakes" to her and she was riveted the whole time. She definitely likes being held and hugged me tightly which was just perfect. I was ready to stay in that position as long as it took. We then fed her about 4 oz. of formula, but she seemed pretty wiped out after that. We laid her down on the bed for a nap during which she slept for 3 hrs. I think she had had quite a day!

When she woke up, we got to play for a little while. Then, Allen had to go upstairs to handle some paperwork necessary to make Amelie officially ours. In the meantime, I got to spend about 1 1/2 hrs. playing with her where I got to see how truly active and restless she really was. She basically didn't stop moving, climbing, pulling herself up, rolling over and playing with toys in the room the whole time. She'd even play little games with me which just amazed me and reeled me in even farther. I gave her a biscuit to help her gnaw on her jaw where it seems like she is teething. She'd eat part of it and hand it to me like she was feeding me. When I would go to take a bite, she would take it away and just start smiling and giggling. She would do the same thing with holding her hand and let me kiss it. I never thought we'd be so lucky to see her smile this early, especially laugh and play little games.

She seems very well developed and a strong little kid. She rolls over and pulls herself up. She even crawls a short distance. She walks with assistance and I can imagine it will be a very short amount of time before she is walking on her own. She pulls herself up if she is next to a bed or piece of furniture low enough to do so. She'll pull herself up if you hold your fingers out to her.

We tried to feed her some dinner of congee and a steamed egg that we ordered from room service. She ate some, but was so wiggly and energetic that it was hard to get her to eat much. We've pretty much trashed the room by now and the little teething cookie that we gave her seems to be ground up in lots of little crevices. Thank you Laurie for her wonderful outfit with the butterfly jeans which seem to fit her so well. She wore it for a few hours, but looks like it has already been worn for a week. Just try and keep up with her, you'll wear yourself out!

After dinner (if you can call it that), we found out that she likes to play a game of sitting up and then falling back into Mommy or a pillow. This makes her smile and giggle and, so far, seems to be her favorite game. Allen calls it WWF Smackdown. We've learned to strategically place pillows around the room to cushion the impact of our delicate little flower's playtime. Nana and Papa came over and hung out for a while. Nana got to play with her and really got her laughing when she started tickling her tummy. So far, she seems to thrive with all of the attention and just loves her family. I hope this is really the case, we'll see how the next few days go. So far, so wonderful though...

(Allen's edit) - Amelie likes to eat soap.

Here are the pictures:

• Maile's first moments with Amelie
• Amelie just taking in her new parents
• On the bus! She's a big city girl!
• Naps are fun with mama.
• Playing and enjoying a cookie!