Happy Family Day!!!

We have our girl!!!! We got up early (around 5 a.m. for Christie, Britti, and Emmy), ate breakfast, and met our guide at 8:20 a.m. We were driven to the Civil Affairs office to complete paperwork. What a blur of signing documents, more fingerprinting, and filling out forms!!! Amid the chaos of papers and translations, two little baby girls were carried in the door by orphanage workers. Roger and I froze, looking at the girls to see if we could tell which one was Eliza Kate Beck-Aden. We recognized her almost immediately, even though she was sporting much more hair and a pretty major suntan on her now chubby cheeks. The other couple (Mindy and Keith, also staying in our hotel) also stopped working on their forms to stare at the beautiful girls on the nannies' laps.

A Civil Affairs employee rushed to them and gestured that Ellie was our's. We knew it!! Britti scrambled for the camcorder, and Chelsea and Emmy grabbed their cameras to record the moment that she was first placed in our arms. Christie held her first, and Ellie reached out for Roger's face but hesitated when she felt the hair on his chin. (She soon warmed right up :) !)

The next hour and a half was filled with more forms, paperwork, and, of course, tons of pictures. We had met a really nice family at breakfast in our hotel (Lisa and Anthony and their three kids--two adopted from China), and they helped with taking pictures. They had received their son the night before, and they had only come to complete paperwork so they were so great about helping us to capture the moment.

After Ellie had her foot print done on one document near the very end, she just lost it. Roger took her outside for fresh air while Christie continued to sign still more papers. Ellie fell asleep on his shoulder and remained out as we drove to another office to get her passport work completed. On our way, the orphanage worker told us that Ellie had been one of the most popular babies at the orphanage because she is so alert, active, and intelligent. Indeed, she has shown us just today that her mind is constantly working, and she love to figure out puzzles and to explore how things work. She also loves music, being outside, and moving around.

The orphanage worker also explained that Ellie had been with the foster family for about six months and that they lived on a farm. Her love for the outdoors explains the suntan (almost burn!) on her cheeks and hands. After we peeled off the layers of clothes at the hotel room to change her, we discovered much lighter skin that had been protected from the sun. We joked that Ellie, given her physical strength, abundant energy, and background with farming, might just be the one from our family to show a hog at the Athens County Fair in about seven years :)

Ellie fell asleep again on our way back to the hotel and stayed out until about 2:15. After lunch, Roger and Britti went to drop off the rolls of film that had been taken of Ellie at the orphanage and at her foster home. Praise God that the orphanage was so kind to us!! They used the three cameras that we had sent to them, and they also brought one of the blankets that we had sent to her as well as one of the toys and all of the photo albums!! The other couple who received their daughter at the same time didn't get any of their stuff. We were truly blessed!! Ellie even had one of the outfits on that we had sent to her. By the way, she was able to wear the 12 month outfit and sleeper, but she couldn't fit in the 12 month onesies that we brought. Thus, I think that we'll be investing in some more 18 month clothes before the end of our journey :)

After Roger and Britti returned from dropping off the film and going to Walmart for more water and baby stuff, we took a quick walk in a nearby park and then joined Lisa and Anthony and their kids for a return visit to Pizza da Rocco. Rocco was very pleased to see us and our new baby! Ellie is a tremendous eater-- she had some spaghetti, baby food, and lots of cheerios for supper, and she couldn't stop smiling as she gestured for more!!

It has been an amazing day, but, once again, we're all just beat!! Emmy and Chelsea were down by 8 p.m., and Ellie fell asleep around 8:30. We're headed to the Golden Temple tomorrow so we're going to have yet another early day. Hopefully, this schedule will make the transition back to EST a bit easier... Okay, we'll see. In the meantime, we're just going to celebrate finally having our new little girl with us!!