Meeting our little princess (6/3/12)

We are pretty anxious on the 45 min drive to the XiAn Civil Affairs office where we will finally meet our new baby girl. XiAn is a nice warm 85 ish, very smoggy and crowded place. The buildings are mostly skyscrapers mixed with a bunch of traditional style buildings in between. We are as prepared as possible with diaper bag, cheerios, and the longing to finally hold our sweet girl.
We get to the office a few min early. The office is located on the 6th floor of the Civil Affairs office. Our appointment is at 4pm, it can't come soon enough. It seems so surreal that we are in China, that we soon will be embracing Evangeline for the first time.

A young lady (the Secretary Jenny) comes up to unlock the office and just about 10 min later Mr Bai (orphanage director) steps in the room followed by a nanny holding our sweet girl.
We are surprised at first how very skinny, pale, exhausted and and scared Evangeline looks. Both Todd and I were almost scared to hold her the first time in fear of braking her... SHE IS SOOOO SKINNY...
She had obviously been crying hard for a while and seems just exhausted and sick even.

I get to hold her first, YAY. SO many emotions running through me....

Dad's turn next, while I complete several pieces of paperwork. Including a document to care for the baby over night until the next day when the official paper work is signed. This is to give prospective parents a last "chance out" if they feel the match isn't perfect after all.
This might be our one and only chance to ask questions to the nanny and Mr Bai, so this is a high priority on my list to be able to care for our little princess the best way possible...
Mr Bai makes several phone calls to the hospital where Evangeline received care. Each time he calls, the information given differs, as much as only 1 surgery having been performed, to 2, back to 1 etc. Very confusing how it can not be clear.

 We change her into a cute outfit as we will be getting pictures taken of our new family in just a bit. This one is for our adoption certificate.We make sure to find out the kind of formula and size diapers to buy before we head out on our first ride in the van with our daughter. Car seats are not used here, so she gets to sit on my lap :-). . We stop in a very dubious looking area go to a not so reputable feeling establishment to get the picture taken. Evangeline already likes us and is starting to look fuller of life. Thank goodness, we were concerned for her current health status.

she is so sweet, already cuddling up to us :-)

After a quick stop at the grocery store for formula and diapers we head to the hotel where we get to be together for the rest of the night. Before we can begin to bond all has to be prepared for our next day at the office. So a banker comes to meet Todd in the hotel Lobby to exchange the $6900  into Chinese Juan... kind of funny as the largest Chinese bill is 100 Juan and the rate of exchange is $1 to 6.3 Juan. So Todd returns with a huge stack of money. This has to be counted and put into different packages for different functions. Gifts for the Orphanage Care takers and director have to be readied as well as a bunch of documents so we can complete our paperwork in the morning.

Evangeline finally falls asleep at around 2am after several hours of rocking her. She does NOT like it when I sit or even attempt to sit, "get up mom and rock me" is what I think she is saying.
After a 3:30 am phone call from Auntie Tracy we are up again for a couple of hours and finally get up for the day at 6:30 to make sure we are well fed and ready for our first full day together.