God is good! Today with great joy and anticipation, Aliyah joined our family. What a special day this was. Our adoption agency AWAA does a great job handling all the logistics so that we can enjoy the special moment when we received Aliyah into our arms. Feel free to rush down to the pictures before you finish reading this daily entry … I would.
After our travel we arrived at the Guangzhou civil affairs office at around 2:30 pm we were told to expect that the process would be very quick and that it was likely that the babies were already there at the office. As we arrived our guide explained that the babies were still getting there and we would have to wait only a short while. Even though this wait was short the feelings and emotions in the room made the air almost electric. At one point the babies arrived at the civil affairs office they needed to be examined before being introduced to their forever families. All the babies were just next door from the meeting room we were in and from time to time the door across the hall would open and someone in our group would get a glimpse of one of the children. Our emotions were becoming even more charged and our support for our new friends grew and grew. Liz and I were then told we would be second of the seven families to receive our daughter. The first baby was brought to the room and with video cameras and still cameras running to just catch a small treasure of the joy the process began. Quickly, very quickly Aliyah was brought to us our fear of not recognizing her face was quickly erased as we knew her instantly and at the same time overcome with tears of joy. Now we are thinking how is Aliyah reacting to all this chaos, what will her emotions be, is she afraid, how do we comfort her? At the same time you want to share the joy of your friends getting their own children, can you help them get a photo of a precious moment? In a short time the fog lifts and parents are starting to make connections with their children and having the time to now share the joy together.
Now a little bit about Aliyah. At first she was a little stunned by all the commotion, but she came to each of us easily with no tears. She was cautious and it was not until later in the evening that she shared more emotions, vocalizations, and animations with us. Aliyah is a very curious girl she is very interested in her surroundings squirming to look left and right, down and up to see something new or find out what made a sound. At first she was less interested in people and more into things as the day wore on her interest in us and others increased. She also really liked a small crinkly book which she would hold onto and only dropped once or twice the rest of the day. The workers as the orphanage used active to describe her and after our first day I would say is very accurate. Aliyah ate her first bottle with us very well. As we understand it, this is not usual because of all the change the children have gone through. We found out very fast that she can quickly get herself into a sitting position and will crawl to anything she finds of interest. Before we gave her a bath we got her playing and making lots of fun noises. We were wondering how she would like a bath and the answer was … baths are fun. She splashed the water and seemed to love the touching and water. At this point it was time for her last feeding before bed. We could tell she was getting a little worn out and fussy which she confirmed by eating only a small portion of the bottle. We walked her and sang to her until she reached up and touched the sides of her head to soothe herself and then she was asleep completely worn out from all the action of the day.
As we write this we are so overjoyed and at the same time emotionally spent, yet we can not wait for the next day of this adventure to begin. Tomorrow will be a new day where we can learn something new and special about our daughter.
Please keep us in your prayers and thoughts as Aliyah transitions to being new member of our family.
