A Daddy's Perspective....

Mistye is such a great story teller, so I've got my work cut out for me. A quick update on Gotcha Day from my perspective. As Mistye said, we walked into the Civil Affairs office and were quickly handed Echo.
In fact, we were the first family to be given our child. We really didn't even have time to get nervous. That's when the story changes because our experiences were very different. Mistye left to finalize paperwork and I was left han solo with Echo. She sat on my lap, ate puffs and was happy. I then watched every other family meet their new sons and daughters. I must say it was both heartwarming and heartbreaking. Heartwarming to see the the parents' happiness and know that their child was going to have a better life and loving parents.
Heartbreaking because most of the children were very, very apprehensive... and it showed. It made me realize how lucky we were with Echo. She was only sad for a few seconds and wow out little girl is happy now.

Echo went to bed last night around 9pm. We were all worn out. She cried for about 4 seconds... literally. And then she slept and slept and slept. That's right, the entire night! She woke up at 6:45, which is earlier than we are accustomed to, but that apparently is her normal schedule per the orphanage nanny. To be honest, neither of us expected to have such an easy night. And boy, when that girl woke up this morning she was HAPPY!. She smiled and laughed all morning. We changed two diapers. It's been a whle, but it came back quickly. Like riding a bike I guess. 'You could tell that she was feeling us out yesterday and today she opened up. We went to breakfast -- she is an impressive eater. I'm sure everyone has noticed from the pictures that this little girl likes food. She crushed a waffle and pretty much anything else that we put in front of her. Our other kiddos are finicky, so it's kind of nice to simply put food in front of her and watch it go away. I felt like we were a family this morning and I think we looked like it. By the way, this girl has great table manners.

Afterwards, we Skyped with Pappy and Grandma (my parents) and then headed back to Civil Affairs to finalize more paperwork. I didn't think about it or even realize it at the time, but we were truly "finalizing" the adoption. Echo was officially ours at about 11:15 this morning. Awesome feeling. By the way, all of the families from Gotcha Day were back with us and it was beautiful to see how most of the children were happy and smiling today. It's amazing what 24 hours will do.

We came back, grabbed lunch and then put Echo down for a nap. She cried for three seconds and then racked out for 2 hours. I had to wake her up... and she wasn't pleased. We then went to the pool and she loved it! There is a great baby pool at the hotel. She could have played in there for hours. By the way, our little immobile girl yesterday is now a crawling machine. Again, amazing what 24 hours will do. And, she has taken several steps towards both of us. She's probably a few weeks from walking. Did I mention that this girl smiles alot. It's very cute.

I must admit, and I hope I don't jinx us, but this experience thus far has been very easy. I never expected things to go so smooth. She has taken to us both, smiles, laughs and is such a content baby. She is one of the family for sure. We feel very blessed.