THE BIG DAY - Gotcha Day!!!

First, pictures!!! (I am sorry but I can't post pictures right now - some technical problem, I will try to add them in the morning)

Ok, so this was the most amazing day of our lives.
In many ways it was so surreal. We woke up at about 6:30 am after a pretty decent sleep (surprising!). We went for a western buffet breakfast at the hotel (which was very good). I then went to photocopy our documents in the right size - no real problem, a weird envelope! We amassed at 10 am (meeting some of the 14 families for the first time) and handed over all the money and documents to Freda and David. Then we waited, went for a swim in the fantastic outdoor pool and we waited and waited for the minutes to pass. At 2:00 pm we had to meet in the hotel lobby to begin our trip to the civil affairs office to get the babies. It was crazy exciting with 14 families gathered in the hotel lobby with more camera’s than an NFL game. (i really need to stop the sports metaphors!) People were literally giddy and the two young kids that are going to meet there sisters were literally swinging from the chandeliers. The other hotel guests in the lobby (99% chinese) were wondering what the heck was going on. We board the bus and begin our 20 minute drive to the office.
The civil affairs office is fairly nondescript. We are told that our children will be brought to us in alphabetical order, so Lesley and I are 4th. Up the elevator to the 5th floor (14 families, many lifts required) and make our way to a basic board room with chairs all around a conference table and a series of benches that surround the perimeter. We are told to have one representative from each family sit at the table to sign some paperwork. The paperwork turns out to be for the “period of harmony” - which essentially means that Lesley are I are baby sitting Mara for the next 24 hours to be sure we are in harmony!! Seriously odd. We will finalize the adoption tomorrow with the final agreement. So we sign the paperwork and then wait. The babies begin to arrive one by one and are presented to the families and the tears of joy are flying, and the screams are happening and the room slowly begins to fill with this great sound of life. Lesley and I hand off our video camera to Dave and make our way to the door and David reads out - “Mr. Jacobs and Ms. Grignon...I present to you Dong Tian Tian” and in 1 single moment in my life everything changed. Our little Mara was handed to Lesley by the orphanage nanny. Lesley and I were really prepared for any reaction - “deer in the headlights”, “all out screamfest”, overjoyed baby and in what I can only describe as normal - Mara Tian Tian Jacobs joined our lives. She didn’t cry, she didn’t fuss - what she did do was look at us as if to size us up. While other babies wailed she watched from our perch. She looks different from the February photos that we received but Lesley recognized her right away - me not so quickly. She is fairly thin and long, and has 10 wonderfully long fingers, and 10 very cute toes. Her hair is long and thick and she is fairly light skinned (I am quoting our guide). She has 2 small teeth on the bottom and we think 1 on top, but we are sure that more are on there way soon. She is wonderfully calm and very curious about everything around her - really inquisitive I would say. Lesley and I have a moment of pure joy as we embrace with our child. We have a little time with a translator and a nanny to ask her some prepared questions but in the end the answers are general and not baby specific. The orphanage put together a wonderful package that included a card with the babies schedule for feeding, sleeping etc. and also some of the specifics of the formula and food that the babies are fed (including a small package of the formula for us to use until we can buy some. What a day! It takes about 1 and half hours to get through all the families and have the pictures taken and we are then on our way out the door. We board the bus with some babies crying, and some sleeping and some just watching the world around them.
We got back to the hotel at about 4:30 pm and were told to send a family rep to a specific room at 5:30 to fill out some paperwork that is needed tomorrow. Meanwhile Lesley, Lee, and Mara are up in our suite getting to know each other. We missed the babies regular 4:00 pm feeding so we prepare a bottle and after Mara took a little bit of it - she was out like a light. I took off and did the paperwork and raced back, only to find our girl still sleeping. Les and I decide to wake Mara up in the hopes that she will go to sleep at 9 pm as per her usual schedule - and it sort of works - YEAH Les and Lee!! We wake her up about 7:00 pm and change our first wet diaper - no problem. And we play, and talk, and laugh and smile, and cry a little (a very little) and listen to chinese lullabies, and we have a little bath and it was so much fun. She really is a wonderful baby. Lesley and I give her a pretty good look over. Regular bed time is 9:00 pm but today is no regular day so we try to read Mara to let her tell us when she is ready. Before bed a bottle. Feeding is a bit more of a challenge. We try the formula as was recommended, we try 3 different nipples and 2 bottles, we modify 1 nipple to get more flow - and Mara ended up taking only about 2 or 3 ounces. So we shift gears and make up a small bowl of Rice cereal and attempt a spoon feeding - relief! She take it all in, in the craziest way - swaying her head, laughing and giggling - but takes it which is all that we care. Mara is tired and rubs her eyes and fights sleep pretty hard (that’s my Karma coming back to bite me in the butt) but she settles and falls asleep - we’ll see for how long. WE ARE NEARLY EXHAUSTED!

What an amazing day. Everything I could have hoped and dreamed for and so much more.
Tomorrow will be a long day - lots of paper work.

So good night our loving friends and family and know that we carry you all with us on the amazing journey. We have learned so much from you all and feel so much support from all of you and it makes this experience very special.
Lesley, Lee and Mara