Isabella's GOTCHA DAY -July 21,2008

After a long long time on the airplanes (19 hours total)and waiting in long lines at the Chinese airports. . . .we arrived in China. . . we have Isabella now! We were brought to another large hotel that is about 10 minutes from our hotel. And brought up to a small meeting room. This room had no air conditioning. I had my makeup and hair done nice but after 5 minutes in this room we were all drenched in sweat. Its so humid here that my hair just gets frizzy and curly and shorter. But enough about me(more later):)So focus on the pictures of Isabella not me here.

We were first led to a cute tiny baby with a longer face. (I thought, wow she totally doesn't look like her pictures? But we will take her - didn't want to be picky and complain) So I picked her up and Chuck started filming with the movie camera. Then a minute later we were told we had the wrong baby. I was glad because she totally didn't look like Isabella. Then we were pointed to the crying one that the orphange caretaker was holding. Of course the only baby crying in the room would be Isabella. I should have walked straight over there when we got there. So We had to practically pry her away from her caretaker and she screamed the whole time we were there in the room. We then gave our red gift bags we brought to all the orphanage helpers and took pictures. Then we went back to the hotel. She finally calmed down on the drive and loved the big water fountain in the hotel foyer. She even pointed at it a few times. Then we changed and fed her some cheerios(she loves these) and then a bottle and she played. We tried to sit her on the potty to go poo poo but no poo poo(they called it this- more about that later). We were told to try. Did not work, she screamed. So put her in a clean diaper and tried to get her to sleep. I had to pat her bum and wrap her in a blanket to get her to take a nap. She is still sleeping now. She had done a lot of crying so we know she was very attached to her foster mom. All the babies were brought to the Nanning Orphanage from Guiping (3-4 hour drive) a day ago and they slept last night at that orphanage. So she has had a few crazy days to make her very emotional. The other 3 babies in our group were calm as can be and sucking their thumbs. I must say we were quite jealous. Down the hall were other older kids that were screaming their heads off. Isabella and I walked to that room and checked everyone out because we felt more at home with them. Quite a few other couples were also adopting.
So Isabella is very very pretty and small but has chubby legs. So I think she has been well fed. We were told that her foster mom really spoiled her. We are glad she was well taken care of and made an attachment. Now we just need her to attach to us! Chuck has actually been speaking a little Chinese to her. Mostly when others are not around though. But I will take what I can get.
This whole experience has been so surreal(sp?). Its amazing that we get to take such a cute baby home. I am so excited for our other kids to meet her. We were told that she likes older children and to watch them dance. So as soon as we get home I will throw on some music and we will all dance for Isabella.
Its so sad to see her cry. I am so glad I brought the cheerios. Who would have known that cheerios would save the day. She was able to calm down and play a little on the bed and even made quite a few noises. Still no smile. We have another meeting today at 4:30p.m. We have more papers to sign. Tomorrow we have an interview and tell them we would like to keep her. So really she is only on loan tonight. We were told she is not ours until we sign tomorrow. I will write more later. She is so cute when she sleeps!)