Happy Dad, Mom and Charlotte during our first meeting!
Charlotte seemed to like the things we brought for her to play with.
The ladies from the orphanage just popped into the room handed her to Mom and then left quickly! Charlotte did such a great job and never cried once.
We woke up this morning and Charles said, "Can you believe that we're going to get Charlotte today?". It's been such a long process, 21 months total, and 5 since we reviewed her file and requested her for adoption. We met up with our group at 2:00pm and drove to the Civil Affairs Bureau about a 15 minutes drive from our hotel. By the way, our guides here are Kelly and Judy, sisters who will help us over the course of our stay. Everyone was so excited! We took the elevator to the 8th floor and when we walked out people were standing in a big room that had smaller private rooms off of it. Just as we walked in, a Chinese lady was handing a small girl to her family. The mom was crying and had her arms outstretched. It was an emotional scene to enter upon. There were people and children everywhere. We were whisked into a smaller side room and our guide Judy explained that we needed to get our orphanage donation and provincial paperwork fees ready. I hadn't even had a chance to take off my coat when all of the sudden Charles said, "There's Charlotte!". I turned around and some ladies were bringing her in. She let me take her and she never cried once the whole day. She was wearing the little read outfit that we had sent her in December for her birthday. It had the name "Charlotte" embroidered across the bottom of the shirt. It was so sudden I didn't have a chance to cry. We got some toys and books out and sat down to look at each other. Dad had a turn holding her and she snacked on Cheerios, but she couldn't seem to work out how to use the sippy cup. After we took care of the paperwork we headed back to the hotel. She ate great at dinner time. We went to a restaurant that was close by and had chicken congee (a watery rice porridge). Charlotte gobbled it up and slept soundly!
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