We Are A Family of Four!

What an amazing morning. I can't even begin to explain the joy in our hearts as we finally have Rachel in our arms. She is truly beautiful in every way. God has truly blessed our family and we are so indebted to him.

We arrived at the Civil Affairs office at 11:00 AM and we saw Rachel right away. Her nanny was holding her and she was very young. She was hugging and kissing Rachel as she was holding her. My heart completely melted as I watched them and I was hurting too knowing how much pain I may be causing Rachel in the coming days as she is being ripped away from everything she has known.

When our documents were finally confirmed, she was placed in my arms. She felt so wonderful and she felt like she belonged to us from day one. This little girl was meant to be with our family. Rachel just looked at us at first and whimpered a bit. So much was going on and the other baby's were screaming. I was thinking, wow she isn't crying much. Well, we left pretty quickly after getting her and headed back to the hotel since the Civil Affairs office was extremely busy with appointments today. The orphanage employees followed us to our hotel where they would answer any questions we might have.

When we got into the bus, that's when Rachel let us know that she was not happy! She cried off an on all the way back to the hotel. We got to our room and I let Dave feed her some Gerber bites, because she seemed to cry more when Dave was around. As soon as Dave fed her food, he was her best friend. I went off and met with the orphanage employees to see if I can get some questions answered, but they pretty much didn't have much more to say except for was disclosed to us yesterday. I did find out that there are 35 baby's in her orphanage and 20 employees, so she was cared for by the same caretaker each day.

When I returned to the room, she was having a screaming fit. We figured she was probably hungry so I had to find out how to make the formula which of course is written in Chinese. We finally got some instructions, but she didn't eat a whole lot. I figured maybe she was exhausted from the whole ordeal so I layed her in the crib. Well, she just completely opened up and had quite a few smiles to share with us. She's been talking and cooing since I put her in there. I picked her up and fed her a little more of her bottle which she finally did drink. Only about 4 ounces, but it's better than nothing. I'm hoping to get her some congee (rice like porridge) for dinner. She is a very good size. She is very long and not too thin. I think they may be right on with her weight now which is about 20 lbs. She has some skin rash on her back, maybe eczema. I wish I had brought some cream for her. I will bathe her after her nap.

She is so cute, as I'm typing this she is talking away in her crib and when I look over at her she smiles. She is starting to cry now. I really think she is tired and fighting it. Yeah, I think she just went to sleep! Gosh, I feel so utterly happy. I can't believe I have a sleeping baby in my room. I can't believe we finally have her! I am so overjoyed and truly can't wait to share her with all of you.

Dave, Jake and my father in-law left to go to a baby store to buy formula, diapers, wipes and some more toys. They should be back soon. I hope you like some of the photos.

Please keep the emails coming to my hotmail account which is sherrycrist@hotmail.com. I received many messages and have read all of them. I will try and respond if possible. I love hearing from all of you, they truly warm my heart.