IT'S A GIRL!!!!!

We met our little GIRL today!!!  She is perfect.  Her name will be Malia.

Anya (I was misspelling her name before) picked us up at 9:20am at our hotel.  We drove to the Dept of Education and waited for our appointment.  The Department was a very warm welcoming building inside.  There were several people waiting around, all speaking other languages.  We met Leila, our agency’s representative there.  She was very nice and spoke English very well.  We were called back into a room in the back with Leila.  There were 2 women in the room who worked for the Dept.  One woman shuffled some papers in front of her and I caught a glimpse of a black and white picture of a baby girl with dark Asian eyes and dark hair. But it was only a glimpse because she moved it under some other papers.  One of the women asked Leila a question in Russian and Leila translated.  Scott and I had to answer a few questions . . . where we worked and what we did, did we know other families who had adopted (um that’s a definite yes!), and did we have any formal training classes on adoption.  It was a short but nerve wracking few minutes because all I wanted to do was look at that picture.  After questions were over that page came back out and Leila began to tell us about a little girl, now 23 months old.  A little girl!!!!!!!!  We were asked if we wanted to visit her.  YES!!  We signed a form and off we went straight to her orphanage.  We pulled up to a building with 2 large giraffe’s painted on the front.  There was an outside play area with about 20 kids playing outside.  I looked everywhere, but didn’t see our little girl.  We were greeted by a police officer who checked our passports and let us in the locked gate.  Actually, right before that, a little boy, maybe 3 years old saw us coming and ran up and pushed the button to unlock the gate. I wanted to bring him home too.  He looked just like Scott.  As we walked through the play area, a little girl, about 3 or 4 with long blond hair, turned around and saw me.  She immediately smiled a big smile and waved up at me.  She had downs syndrome and I wanted to bring her home too.  An older woman was pushing a very antique looking stroller with 2 little babies snuggled up in blankets lying inside.  I wanted to bring both of them home as well! 

We went inside and sat down in the small office.  One of the nurses pulled our little girl’s file and told us her medical and social history that they had on file.  Leila translated for us and I wrote down notes as fast as I could.  She is overall a healthy girl!  Thank you Lord!  We talked 20 or 30 minutes and all of a sudden, an orphanage worker showed up at the door holding the hand of the most precious dark haired dark eyed chubby cheeked little princess.  (Scott is completely smitten with her. He is already planning her appointment at the bibbity bobbity boutique at Disney World J ).  Scott and I were sitting on the couch and I got down on the floor and held out my hands as they led her to me.  She was cautious looking at both of us.  I let her come to me and I sat her down in my lap.  She touched my necklace and I talked to her for a bit.  I began to cry looking at the top of her head and her little nose.  I made myself stop, I didn’t want to scare her.  We gave her the Scout puppy dog that Landon gave us.  She loved it!  I showed her how to push his paws to make him talk and light up.  She did it!  I was so thankful for that little brief moment where she seemed to understand what I said.  Scott snapped pictures and sat down in front of us.  Scott touched her knee and she looked down at her knee like “what are you doing?”  J

We only had about 30 minutes with her before they took her to eat lunch. It wasn’t long enough!  We needed more time.  But we will be back tomorrow for 2 hours we hope. She toddled out the door holding the hand of the nurse.  We are in love!  I wish we could share her picture with you, but we are not allowed until the adoption is final, which will not be for another 2 months.  Seems like an eternity, but she will be home with us before we know it!  Thank you Lord for this precious gift!  (This picture is us waiting out front for Anya before our family turns into party of 3!)