BEST DAY EVER.
We were told to arrive at this meeting room in our hotel at 3pm and that Ruby would be brought in at 3:30. When we got there we sat down and were asked if we had our passports with us. Um... NO!!!??!! So John ran up to the room quick to get them- we weren't concerned since we had plenty of time still. Except, right after he left I heard some commotion by the door and this is what I saw: a bunch of people and a baby being brought in! I frantically told the kids to start recording and taking pictures as I started shaking and thinking:
1. Oh my gosh, John is missing all of this!
2. Is that really her?? She's so tiny!!
3. Our baby! Our baby! She's finally here!!!!!
The lady to the right is the adoption coordinator at the orphanage (I think) and she kept saying something to me in Chinese and pointing to me. I believe she was telling me CanCan(as they called her- pronounced Chan Chan there) was for us. :) Then they showed me her picture and asked if that was the correct baby? YES YES YES- now just give her to me!! ha! I was shaking and crying- exactly how I didn't want to react because I did not want to scare her.
Immediately after they handed her to me John showed up(that's his blue shirt in the background). She just kept staring at me- she was so unbelievably calm and sweet. She just thoughtfully took in every moment with curiosity(ok, so maybe she was wondering who the basket case was but I guess we'll never know!). We couldn't have asked for a more perfect reaction. I didn't want her to be scared or nervous- I'm sure maybe she was those things on the inside but she never showed it. In that moment, adoption became real and our lives would be forever changed.
John assumed he had missed quite a bit of time so he right away asked to hold her. Now when I look back at the video, he actually only missed a few seconds and so I actually got very little time to hold her- he had her almost all of it!! Ha! Figures.
Got her back in my arms! I kept thinking- how is she this cute??? She is a little angel- a sweet, precious little angel- and she is all ours!! We kept telling her how much we loved her in Chinese- that we promised we would take good care of her- that we had been waiting for her, that she was so beautiful. We gave her a million kisses and held her so close- I didn't ever want to let go.
I have more pictures coming. The kids did such an amazing job of recording and snapping a million pictures. I am so thankful that they did that for our whole family to treasure forever.
I don't think that I will ever be able to accurately describe the emotions and thoughts we had that day... and continued to have. I will try though. All the years of waiting for our arms to be full again, all the sadness and yearning of not having another little one to love vanished. All the worry and anticipation of the previous year's adoption journey was gone. Our hearts were bursting with joy, love, and possibility of all that was to come for our baby girl. It was the feeling I had when each of our other three precious children were placed on my chest after arriving into this world- she was ours, and the the love we had for her at that moment was exactly the same- it was love at first sight! Ruby Mei did not come into our family in the way that her brothers and sister did- her's is a very different, special story. Our family had to travel half way across the world to get her! She was born in our hearts and could not be more loved by every one of us. Ruby is a little sister, a granddaughter, a niece. She is our daughter. Forever.
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