Gotcha Day...

How do we even begin to describe our journey to Anna Mei?

The day began early again, as we all still wake by 4:30 most mornings (though Mom had a very restless night...something like a five year old child trying to sleep on Christmas Eve).  A good breakfast and it was into the bus for the 4 1/2 hour drive to the capital of Hebei, Shi Jia Zhuang, to the provincial office to meet Anna Mei.

Photos from today

(If you can't see the Flash slideshow above, click here.)

One important note about the driving here.  Our driver would frighten even the most hardened New York Cabbie, as would every other driver on the road.  At any given intersection bikes, scooters, traffic and people weave in all directions.  The cultural tendency of not respecting personal space applies to cars as well as inches separate the movement of cars.  We found it best to keep our eyes in the car as much as possible as our driver liked to move through the many manufacturing trucks with inches to spare, and no driver hesitates to drive on the shoulder of the roads.  One note, the boys were fantastic on this trip.  Christopher worked on his poetry homework, Alex listened to music and played games, and Wil drew pictures for Anna Mei of our family.  We had another few rousing games of Old Maid as well.  So anyway, we arrived alive, a bit early for our 2 PM appointment.  We were told we would need to wait.   Still waiting for the person in charge around 2:30 our guide had an angry conversation with someone in the main office on the phone.  It seems the woman we had an appointment to see was home today with an emergency, and there was no plan to replace her.  Fortunately, she was able to persuade them to have another colleague come over to help us.  By 3 PM we had been fingerprinted, our documents checked, and our answers were sufficient as we promised to care for all of Anna Mei's health, education, and welfare needs.  Anna was running late, so we sat to wait.

The photo with her on her caregiver, Mrs. Li's lap is our very first interaction with Anna.  She was nervous, but did not cry.  She let me hold her and was very interested in her new brothers.  We were introduced to her as Ma Ma, Ba Ba, and Ge Ge.  Mrs. Li sat and answered our many questions.  She was kind and you could see she cared about Anna.  We learned though that their were 80 babies in their baby section of the orphanage, and we are quickly seeing how she has learned to sit and entertain herself with her fingers.  She will sit, lick her fingers, and mark her territory so to speak with her hand.  She will touch things, then put them down and taste them off her fingers.  She was treated as a baby at the orphanage and at age two is still almost primarily on bottles and very little solid food. We have the world of food to introduce this little girl to!

Our favorite moment of the day came when she met her Daddy.  Within minutes they were playing a game with his mouth and she let out full belly laugh.  The laughs continued as we discovered on the ride home that she is very ticklish on both her belly and her feet.

She is absolutely beautiful in every way.  She is happy, smiles, interacts with the kids and us.  She rarely fusses.  On the long drive home she became afraid of the lights of the cars shining in and making designs on the ceiling.  She cried for a while, but was able to be comforted by mom and by Kai Lan playing on the ipad.  You know us DiMedio's...technology to the rescue!

There are so many other details to share, but we are starving now and need to head out to breakfast.  We will continue to share, but please know, she is happy, healthy, and we are all already completely in love with her.