Monday, June 26, 2006
GOTCHA DAY!
"An invisible red thread
connects those who are destined to meet regardless of time,
place or circumstance. The thread may stretch or tangle, but
will never break."- An ancient Chinese belief
Gotcha!! (and never letting you go!)
Today we received Annabel and we cannot believe how beautiful
and charming she is! We feel extraordinarily blessed! Mia is
over the moon. This will certainly go down in history as being
one of the most surreal and intense days of our lives.
We started the day with an afternoon flight from Beijing to
Changsha in the Hunan Province where Annabel is from. We got to
our hotel and had 1.5 hours to get ourselves ready to head to
the Civil Affairs Office to get the girls. The anxiety and
excitement in our group was palatable! When we arrived at the
Civil Affairs office, the nannies were walking down the street
with the babies and we were all scrambling to try to get a
glimpse our child. It was like seeing Santa Clause come down the
chimney the night before Christmas.
The babies were really good, smiling and laughing until they
started getting handed to their parents. By the time we left the
Civil Affairs office all the babies were crying. Mia and Annabel
hit it off right away as you can see in the picture. Throughout
the evening, Annabel would go from laughing and smiling to
inconsolable crying off and on.
When we finally took Annabel's clothes off to bathe her in the
evening, we found that her foster mother had tied a red thread
around her neck with a small jade Buddha. The Chinese believe
there is a red thread that ties us to our ancestors as well as
to everyone we are destined to meet. We will with safeguard that
necklace.
We had a rough night, but Annabel slept well and through the
night (for the most part). She only got up once at 3:00 AM to
take a bottle and then went right down until about 7:00 AM.
That's it for now, more photos and text to come in the next several days. |
The Nannies taking the babies to the office
In the office with the Nannies and our babies!
Mia meets Annabel for the first time
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