WE HAVE HER!!!!

We have her! She is ours! And she is perfect!

Now, I am not saying my daughter is the smartest kid in the world, but how many of you can say that your baby said Mama and Baba (Chinese for Dada) on the first day that you met him or her? I wonder how old you have to be to win the Nobel Prize...

Just a short blog to go with a long day today...

We got up early today to get on a bus for the airport...of course I have been wide awake around 3 AM every day anyway so it wasn't early for me. We then got on a plane for Nanchang and promptly sat on the tarmac for an hour waiting for clearance to move. After we got that clearance we moved to the end of the taxi way and waited for another 30 minutes to take off. Let's just call it a little inefficient and frustrating. I wonder if the pilot knew that he had 9 mothers waiting to meet their daughters in the plane...he is lucky April didn't storm the cockpit and fly to Nanchang herself.

With the delay on the airfield, we were late to pick up our daughters by 90 minutes. The orphanage workers had them all in a conference room at the hotel we are staying at and by the time we arrived they were all hungry, wet, and cranky! Luckily we were able to go straight to our rooms to change diapers and figure out how to make a bottle...you laugh...but it was quite an adventure. After a quick bottle we went to the Civil Affairs and Adoption Services Office across the street. This was about 3 hours of chaos as we all tried to get our paperwork in order and our donations paid to the government. Sophie was perfect sitting in her sling on April's hip and I filled out as many forms as I did when we bought our house in Florida...the only difference is that I couldn't read any of the questions. I might have sold some of you off to work in Chinese factories for all I know...sorry about that...

After paperwork we got some dinner...Sophie is a good midwestern girl...she loves mashed potatoes and bread. I think she will fit in quite nicely with our families. After dinner we promptly crashed back at the hotel. Well...April and I tried, but Sophie was not interested in sleep just yet...she was still trying to figure out what the heck just happened. Apparently I have the "touch" as I was able to get her to fall asleep after about 45 minutes. She slept about 7 hours and we have just spent the last hour watching her wiggle and chatter in the crib. Not crying at all...just figuring out what is up with the world. She rolled onto her stomach and then eventually back onto her back, all the while babbling in baby chatter. She may have spent the last 10 months in an orphanage, but she is pretty mobile and just my luck will be walking down the mall with her mother soon, spending all my money.

Well...off to try and get some sleep before the next big event. Tomorrow is the court system to make things a little more official. We also get to visit the Chinese Walmart...woo hoo!