Gotcha Day - Part II

I am so sorry for those who I have promised I'd call or contact. It's been a little crazy around here the last twenty-four hours. It's the middle of the night here and Ellie is awake and playing so I thought I'd catch a moment to blog about her Gotcha Day.

We left the hotel at 8:45 headed toward the orphanage. We stopped at a store for cakes, tea and coffee for the caregivers and also to buy fruit, fruit juice and cookies (Kat, it was MUCH appreciated), along with 500 diapers and five tubes of diaper rash ointment (Vonnie, they were absolutely beside themselves with your donation). We exchanged money to give as tokens of our appreciation for the staff at the orphanage and were on our way. Along the way we stopped to buy the fresh fruit for the orphanage. We stopped at a local bazaar/farmer's market. We got apples, bananas and grapes. It was a HUGE amount of fruit.

We arrived at the orphanage with tons of gifts and took them in to Tatiana's office. We had to sign her out which is when Tatiana said that she was "officially your baby". WOW! I almost cried at that point, but held myself together -- until we got to her room. We were told she was asleep. I rubbed my hand on her face and her eyes popped right open and Lord have mercy, SMILED at me. She knew her mama had come back to get her. I picked her up out of the crib and began to sob uncontrollably. She was finally ours -- after this LONG, LONG time, she was ours. Every time I kissed her, she giggled and stuck her tongue out. We had the greatest time laughing.

At that point, I gave Tatiana the head measuring tapes that Suzanne had sent (she was again very appreciative) and we were taken to another room to change her clothes.

The staff thought her pink boots were the bomb. After having been here and seen all the girls in boots, I suppose this was a very correct fashion choice (haha). They called Ellie a Princess. Hmmmmm.... does everyone know this?? *smile* We got her dressed and they wanted to feed her lunch. She was MOST uninterested in lunch, and we thought it was because it was a little early for her or because of all the excitement. Later in the evening we decided it is because she is teething and her gums must be hurting something fierce.

After dressing her, we were shuttled back to the director's office for cake and tea -- which we actually got to eat some of. WOW!!! Ellie fell asleep during this time.

I visited for a while and then, amazingly, it was time to leave. I got very emotional leaving the gates of what has always been her home and knowing she will not be coming back.

She slept about half the ride home and then woke up, sat up in my lap and looked out the window. She played with some toys and giggled and laughed all the way back to the hotel. We had several instances of spitting up, but with the drive and the roads being bumpy, I was not surprised.

We got back to the hotel, called daddy and brother and grandparents and knew we needed to eat. Good thing, because right after we got our food eaten, the power went off and didn't come back on until sometime in the night (well, it's still night). This, of course, prevented me from posting photos, etc. My apologies.

As I type, she is sitting in my lap watching the screen. She LOVES the computer -- she is obviously my girl. She loves watching the video we made (on the blog) of her Gotcha Day. She loves music, kisses, her travel bed that has toys hanging down and her hands. She LOVES her hands. I suspect she has just discovered them. She loves to kick her feet around too. I suspect there wasn't much of that in the orphanage due to being bundled up.

She has not eaten very much and this concerns me quite a bit. She took one 4 oz bottle and maybe an ounce out of three others. She has eaten some banana baby food. I was surprised to learn they had already started her on cereal and some food and juice.

I'm sure there is more, but The Princess and I have GOT to try to get some sleep. I saw lots of overstimulation and attachment issues last night -- back arching, head shaking, etc. She is happy, but yesterday was really a LOT for her to handle. She loves to look you in the eye, but I think it just became way too much late last night. We hope each day will be a bit better.

She is sneezing a lot, so I suspect she has a cold. She also has had several loose diapers. I suspect we will be whipping through the diapers.

I cannot tell you how invaluable Jennifer has been to me the last few days. She has helped me SO much, making bottles, fetching things, making sure I remember every thing, taking TONS of great photos (all the ones you see here are hers). I will never be able to appropriately thank her for all she has done.