Gotcha Day!! We have Lydia!

Well, it's 5:00pm here, we've been up for 12 hours, and I am typing with my new daughter on my lap!

So to back up a bit, our day started very early around 5 am.  We got some coffee in our room (Starbucks instant packets of course), and got ready for the day.  We had paperwork to pack up and also our bags to get ready and a little backpack for Lydia to get ready.  Her backpack was filled with snacks and treats, little toys, a small stuffed panda and a couple of small books.  We were as prepared as possible to have to distract her away from screaming for our one hour car ride from the orphanage back to the hotel.  Oh and I can't forget, we also brought a couple of plastic bags because we were warned these kids are frequently very motion sick everytime they go in a car at first.  So we got all packed up and ready to go, including of course the butterflies in our stomach!  We had to eat a very very fast breakfast in about 5-10 minutes, but that was ok because I don't think either of us were very focused on food at that point!   So we met our guide at 6:50am and headed on our one hour drive to the orphanage. 

Getting ready to go this morning.  We couldn't unpack our suitcases much because they only had a room last night with 2 twin beds and so after the one night they were going to move us to a room with a king bed.

Breakfast - had to get just a little in the stomach to feed the butterflies.

 I have to say at this point I was amazed at how calm I actually felt.  I know we were both definitely nervous, but I was not anxious.  I have found there is a big difference between anxiety and nerves.  Nerves I can handle no problem, but anxiety can really mess with me.  After a week of battling anxiety on and off along with the jet lag, I was amazed that on the morning of going to meet Lydia, I really had no anxiety or the nasty symptoms that go with it.  Don't get me wrong,we were plenty nervous, but yet still oddly calm about the whole thing.

The best way I can describe this whole morning is surreal.  Absolutely a bizarre and unreal experience.  All of these things that we have seen in pictures and tried to imagine from the other side of the world, we drove straight into the middle of today.  We pulled up to the gate of the orphanage and waited while they approved us to pull in and park.  Then we got out and waited in the parking lot for one of the staff members to arrive and take us inside.  Here are some pictures we took in the parking lot of the outside of the orphanage and also of the lobby as we walked in.  Again, surreal to see these places that we saw in pictures - the pictures we were sent of Lydia that are posted back in November on the blog were taken in this lobby and we walked right past the things we saw in the background of her photos.

The sign at the gate

Looking at the gate and the Social Welfare Institute beyond

Our guide talking to the guard at the gate to get approval to let us in

A view of the SWI

Me with our guide as we wait for the staff member to walk us in

In front of the SWI

In the lobby

To the side of the lobby - one of the pictures we had of her was in front of that fish wall

The flower things in the background to the right were in another of the photos we received of her

And this big book in the lobby was another place they took a photo of her.  Amazing to be able to fly around the world and walk into the places where we saw her in the pictures.

So after we got through the lobby, we went upstairs and into what they call the meeting room.  It's really more of a small office with a little couch area in the corner.  We did some paperwork at first.  They needed some papers from us - mostly copies of our passport photo page and passport visa page as well as copies of our homestudy.  After all the paperwork we have done it seemed like a small amount to bring with us today.  We also had to sign some things and mark them with our fingerprint.  Formalities at this point.  

The couch area in the meeting room

Signing papers

Fingerprinting papers

Then we waited, and waited some more....we found out they were still getting her dressed and ready to go.  So we waited....

And then we saw outside the window into the hallway, a woman and a little girl walking by....and into the room walks our little Lydia....took my breath away....

The staff member who helped us with paperwork and Lydia with one of the Nannies that helped care for her.

Walking in holding her bag of crackers.  Silent shock was how I would describe her.  The woman on the right is one of the nannies we think, although we never found out her name.

She liked looking at the book we had sent with pictures of us.  Our guide talked with her about the pictures and Lydia was quite interactive about repeating who the people were.  Daddy is "ba-ba" and Mommy is "ma-ma"

 After only a few minutes of looking at the book and taking a couple of pictures, they said, "Ok, you can go."  No kidding.  That fast.  So we gathered up our things and our guide said to me, "She wants to hold your hand."  So she held my hand and out we walked.  The only other thing we did was stop in the hallway and ask some questions about her and her routine there.  You'd have to ask Jim if you wanted to know what the questions were and what the answers were that were given.  I was too in awe of the little girl quietly holding my hand to have heard much of that conversation.

We found out she loves animal crackers!  And absolutely no car sickness!

I am absolutely amazed at how smoothly she coasted through this whole experience.  NO tears.  Already smiling for the camera.

She LOVES looking at the book of pictures of all of us. 

She has been so calm the entire day so far.  We were really prepared to deal with screaming and uncontrolled behavior.  Not so far, although we're not naive enough to think it isn't coming at some point.  But through the whole morning (and the whole day so far) she has had no tears, she has smiled and even laughed with us.  I will post more later hopefully of the couple of other things we did the rest of the day.  Right now we have to take this little one to get her second meal of the day with us.


A final thought until later - 
"This was the Lord's doing; it is marvelous in our eyes!"
Psalm 118.23





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