GOTCHA!!!

Happy Gotcha Day! Can you believe it's been 3 years now? Lets see, fun memories from April 9, 2007....Up at the crack of dawn to board a plane to Guangzhou. It didn't matter how early it was. We didn't sleep anyway! Hanging out in the lobby of the hotel, waiting for roll call...."Family 1, Family 2...Family 16" (that was us). Remember the forever bus ride to the Civil Affairs office? I swear it took forever! Everybody grinning from ear to ear. We'll have our babies in just an hour! Amy kept telling us not to cry when they hand us our baby, and don't be upset when they cry. "They will know that you love them". All the last minute instructions: "You bebe will have on lots of clothe. Dont undress you bebe when you get her back to hotel. She need familiar smell of clothe. When we go out, make sure bebe covered up. She used to having on lots of clothe. Western kids used to not wearing many clothe, but Chinese bebe alway bundled." We were so excited to get "updates" on the girls on the way to civil affairs. Gao Shao Huan (AnnaLyn)now had 9 tooth pieces. We all compared the girls updates. Oh my goodness...it was really happening! Right now. We pulled into the "alley" where the Civil Affairs office was located, got off the bus and passed another bus of "Westerners" that had just gotten their babies. Man, how many babies do they adopt out of here in a day?!? They all looked petrified. The parents and the babies. We were too. "Ok, Tanner, you've got the video camera, right? Dont let daddy touch the video camera. We want to be able to watch the video without being sick!. Who has the picture camera? Take lots of pictures. Take pictures of everybody, but especially of AnnaLyn.....And for goodness sake, remember, you're on camera. If not ours, somebody elses. So please behave. OK, lets go get our babygirl!" We are finally here. Where are the babies? Oh, more paperwork first. "please check that your names and addresses are spelled correctly...." Good grief, what IS my name?? Can we just have the babies? We hear them in the other room. Dont you hear them crying for us??? And they brought them out. one by one. Hope came out walking to her mommy and daddy. Eliana wasn't a happy camper. The Pridemore twins were throwing quite a fit too. AnnaLyn was beautiful. Well, at least I think she was. I could barely see her through the tears I wasn't supposed to have in my eyes. And she was so far away. All the other nannies gave the babies to the mommies. AnnaLyn's nanny gave her to Chris. (And she still prefers him to this day!) She didn't cry at all. Never made a peep. Just stared at us, at the ceiling, looked around the room, probably thinking, "what have i gotten myself into?" I remember thinking, "I think something's wrong, she isn't crying like the other babies." I don't remember much after that. Just staring at her. I hadn't remembered how LOUD it was in that room until I went back and watched the video. So, now we have our girls and they ushered us out of the room. We passed by another bunch of "Westerners", coming to get their babies. Wow. It's like a machine. Sad, really. Back to the hotel. Was it loud on the bus? I don't remember. I must have tuned it out if it was. AnnaLyn still didn't cry. She just stared out the window. She sure looked hot in that little pink sweat suit and red socks. So we walk in our hotel room and plop her on the bed. What's the first thing I did? Stripped her naked, just like they told me not to do. I don't care. I wanna see my babygirl. She's a tiny little thing with all those clothes off! Hey, I know, lets give her a bath. She kind of smells funny. (Actually, all of China kind of smells funny) She likes the water. yay. OK, which cute "warm pajamers" should we put on her first? I let the boys pick them out. Chris warmed a bottle and scooted the boys out of the room. Poor thing was starved to death, but didn't know how to suck from a bottle. It took a while and a few trial and errors with the nipples for her to get it, but she was patient. Still no crying. Time for bed. She just laid in the bed and looked around. No crying. She finally drifted off to sleep...and slept all night while her mommy and daddy watched her breathe. Wow, is she always gonna be this easy? And that was the end of the first Gotcha Day.