Annie!

We have our girl! And she is wonderful, just wonderful! She has a beautiful smile and bright eyes, and a sweet and funny personality. I am in love.

After finally getting an hour of sleep the night before, I got up and got ready to meet our sweet girl. We met our guide Ming Ming and our driver down in the lobby at 8:30 and hopped in a van to go to the bank to exchange our US dollars to CNY for the orphanage fee. (For those who don't know, some agencies and orphanages allow you to wire the money ahead and some don't, and exchanging it once here keeps you from carrying around piles of Chinese currency.) We walked from the bank to the office where we were to meet Annie, and filled out all of the necessary paperwork. During that time the orphanage had brought Annie into the building and had her waiting in a separate room while we finished the administrative stuff. We had to go down the hall to give someone our orphanage fee and passed by the office where Annie was sitting patiently at a desk faced away from us.

Finally we were done and ready for our big meeting. She came in through the door and I kneeled down to grasp her in my arms. She snuggled right in and called me Mama and I knew that she new who I was, and that she was happy about it. She let me hug and kiss on her, and then I introduced her to her big brother, who she calls "gugu", (not spelled correctly Mandarin wise, but this is what it sounds like.) She and he have been pretty enthralled with each other ever since. I gave her a sucker and then set her in my lap and showed her pictures from a small album I had made of our family members, house, and pets. I also brought out her special backpack with toys, which was a hit except for the stuffed cat that she immediately shook her head at and didn't want.

Then the orphanage workers brought out a wonderful album they had made with pictures of her from over the years, including when she was a baby! What a treasure!!! The also gave us a very nice stamp and ink set with a stamp of her name characters on it. We were also given a form that had a few pages answering questions about her personality and daily schedule. I was so impressed!

Next Ming Ming took us to an Asian super market to pick up some bottle water and snack (for future reference, do not try the squid flavored potato chips. Stephen decided to try these, and they were nasty beyond belief!) Annie was very glad to go with us and walked from the car between us holding my hand and Stephen's, and then letting us hold her. She went in a cart at the grocery store and enjoyed sticking things in the cart.

We were dropped off at the hotel and went up to show Annie around the room, to her new toys, etc. She was very excited and pretty quickly wanted to get into our cool hotel tub to take a bath. I filled it with bubbles and stacking cups and she had a ball. I took the opportunity to fold and put away her clothes (which she was totally fine with), and quickly grabbed something else for her to put on afterwards. She pointed to the wash rag on the counter, and then after she got it wet indicated that she wanted me to wash her. I thought this was a great sign!

After she got dressed, she continued checking out the room. This girl is Busy, and I do mean with a capital B! My little Jason is pretty busy, but I think Annie is going to surpass him in this area! We had video chatted with 'Baba'- Daddy on the computer,(and Jason who woke up just long enough to say high and then go back to sleep) when we first came in and she was so excited, but also wanted to keep pushing all of the buttons on the keyboard. Same with my phone, I quickly learned that it was going to have to stay in my possession! She is also a great talker. Unfortunately, I have no idea what she is saying, but that doesn't stop her!

We walked around the corner to have lunch (she's a good eater!), and then came back and video chatted with her big sister Kate. They were pretty excited about each other! I am so glad that Kate will be there for a few days when we get back! Later we video chatted with Poc and Gran so that they could meet her as well. I know they are in love with her already.

Tomorrow we go to sign papers and make the adoption official! The rest of the week will be spent hanging out and playing in our room, and doing some site seeing. We found out that we will be allowed to visit the orphanage on Friday! Annie is sleeping soundly right now, (which is why I have been able to write this very long blog post!) I can wait to wake up to her sweet smile in the morning!!!