Gotcha Day!

Well today was the big day.  We spent a lot of the morning preparing paperwork for the adoption process and at 3p.m. we boarded a chartered bus that took us to the Social Welfare Institute Office.  There were many adoptions happening but it turns out none of the 5 babies for our group were there yet.  So they put us in a hot room and we had to wear our masks.  We had decorated ours a bit to try and make them look less scary. 

We didn't actually end up waiting too long and within a few minutes all of the babies were in the room and were handed over to their parents.  It was very surreal.  Siena screamed the loudest and actually got all of the others screaming along with her.  Boy, does she have a set of lungs!  She seemed more comfortable going to Justin and after a good 15 minutes of screaming she sacked out in his arms.  We then had our family picture taken for the adoption process (without the masks) and then got back on the bus to the hotel.  We were back in the lobby by 4:30p.m. 

We then filled out more paperwork for her passport and finalizing the adoption and then headed to dinner.  Siena ate a ton which is a good sign.  We gave her a bath which she HATED and now fell asleep on top of Justin.  I am hoping that she stays asleep for awhile.  It has been a long day for all of us!

The other cool thing about our Gotcha Day is that on June 1st, China celebrates Children's Day.  It is a designated holiday for all primary schools.  There is a great park 2 blocks from our hotel (The People's Park) and there were tons of activities and ceremonies going on there this morning.  We walked down and got balloons for all of the kids.  I defiantly looked like a spectacle carrying 7 Hello Kitty balloon's down the street while trying to dodge the caravan of bikes and mopeds headed towards me. 

Also, all of the care package items that we had sent to Siena were returned to us including the three cameras.  I am hoping we can get those developed while in Nanning.  I am anxious to see them. 

We will post more tomorrow and more pictures.  Unfortunately our camera had the great timing of having the battery die 5 minutes before we met Siena.  Luckily we have two professional photographers in our travel group and they promise to share their photos with us.