Our First Day with Sweet Pea

For 6 years I had watched people's videos of meeting their child.  I envisioned the chaos, the crying, lots of families...and someone video taping it for us.  It didn't go that way.  I had been planning to have Huckleberry video record with the point and shoot, but the early morning and the unexpected knowledge that she was waiting for us already at the hotel put that out the window.  So no "Metcha Day Video".  But I have finally gotten around to reviewing the rest of the photos from our first meeting.  It is way more photo documentation than I have of my first day with any of our other children. 

So without any more babble here are the other pictures from that day.

Sweet Pea, the SWI Director and Assistant Director waited for us across the lobby while our guide checked us in.  Then our guide gestured to them and they followed us down a hall to a room behind the lobby.  I slowed down to keep pace with Sweet Pea.

Oak took this picture within the first few minutes of Sweet Pea coming into my arms.

Once we were in the room, before anyone sat down, and possibly before we even exchanged greetings or hellos, the Assistant Director handed me Sweet Pea.  She didn't really fuss.

 Then the photos with the Director and Assistant Director.

Not the best picture One of the worst pictures that I'm keeping...but the only one with both SWI Directors.  It does show that Sweet Pea wasn't completely shut-down since she was exploring my face.

Then they made me hand her off to Oak to get a picture with him.  No one seemed to want to try their hand at my fancy camera and take a group shot.  Then once we'd taken the photos they had planned, they handed us an album, had us take a picture of some things they had brought that we couldn't keep just see, gave us a box and left.

Do you see the napkin packet Sweet Pea is clutching?  (Though China napkins are more like tissue paper.)

Our guide said, go to your room.  She planned to meet us there after helping the other family who was sharing our guide and meeting their son in the next hour.  So we did.  It was so fast.

We fed her.  Changed her diaper.  Talked to the kids back home via FaceTime.  When our guide came, we signed paper after paper including the red thumbprints...no photos were taken at this time.  Then we got ready for our afternoon of appointments.

 Waiting in the lobby for the other family.  Note the napkins.

The civil affairs office where we had a picture taken for her redbook (our only "family" photo from the day), an interview with the officials, and paid our fees.  Here I also saw the Assistant Director again and our guide arranged that we would be able to go visit the SWI.

More and more waiting.  At 3...per her schedule, she fell into a deep sleep in my arms.  This is when she let go of the napkins and didn't request them back.  We had two more places to visit...the notary and the visa photo office.  I don't remember exactly, but I know we took her visa photo at 3:30 because she was in the middle of her nap and it was almost impossible to wake her up.  Apparently eyes closed was not an option.  People were rattling things at her and jiggling her and talking, talking, talking.  If I had been sleeping, I would have screamed...but she just fussed for a second and opened her eyes enough for the photo.

We spent the rest of the evening in our hotel room getting to know our baby...and it was quite fun to get some smiles and giggles from her that very first day...as it has been every day since.