It is Accomplished!

Well our day basically started at 2:30 this morning. Neither of us managed to get back to sleep. We were determined to stay in bed until 5:30. (The good news is that I actually got almost six hours of sleep since I basically crashed around 7:30 the night before.) The best line of the wee hours has to go to Shari. As we pondered how we never managed to get much sleep the night before a child was born, she said, "I'd take an epidural right about now..." after about two hours of accomplishing no sleep. We then got out of bed and proceeded to get ready.

We went down for breakfast buffet at the same place that had the snakey, turtley, doggy stuff the night before. I tried some things, the worst being a sesame rice ball that was basically some kind wad of sesame seed-coated, uncooked rice dough. It was not so good. Understand that even when you do the "Western" dishes, it can still be an adventure. What they fill a sausage with is not necessarily what we'd fill a sausage with, if you catch my drift. It was mostly very good, and the service was very good as well.

While we were there, a family on the verge of going back to North Dakota took the table next to ours. Their little 19-month-old boy was just as adorable as he could be, and he was responding well to both parents. The mother told us that the room was very crowded with adoptions taking place. The father warned us that the first 30 minutes was very hard, but it had been easy for them ever since. It was funny to watch the little one take unfamiliar things out of his mouth and test the texture with his fingers. Having taken up enough of their time and running a little short on time ourselves, we headed back to our room. Once we got there, we realized we still had a fair amount of time before we were supposed to meet Shinko in the lobby at 8:45 to exchange dollars for RMB (Chinese currency otherwise known as "Yuan"). On the way down, we realized we had forgotten the gifts, so I had to head back up and grab those.

Eventually it was time to head to the Civil Affairs Bureau to meet Cassidy for the first time and take possession of her. Shinko had told us that we might wait as long as one hour before we would get to see her. We walked into the place, and not only was it empty with the exception of three people, one of those three people was Cassidy!

The first picture shows her with one of her orphanage caregivers, and that was actually the last time we had seen her smile until just a moment ago (maybe) at 5:35. Of course, she apparently is only smiling when she doesn't see us. Anyway, Mama (which is Chinese for "Momma"... Chinese is easy) picked her up, and the tears started. When the caregivers left the room, the real wailing began, and she didn't let up for over 20 minutes. The good news is that she calmed down after those 20 minutes. The bad news is she won't let me go anywhere near her. The good news is that I'm used to people not being too fond of me. The bad news is Shari does have to use the restroom every now and again, and those moments of separation don't go over too well with little Cassidy. The good news is I won't have to change any diapers until there is bonding beyond eating Cheerios from my fingers. The bad news is I planned for the worst, and I got it. The good news is I know it will be all good in the end.

We have only had her for eight hours now, but we can tell she's a smart little girl. She definitely knows what she wants and when she wants it, and she'll let you know all about it via tears. (You haven't lived until you've been cussed out in Mandarin by a little girl who comes up to your knee.) Okay, I don't know that I was being cussed out per se, but it was definitely an expression of discontent in Mandarin. Mama is the only one in the room that can hold her. Despite that, when Mama has caught her smiling and eye contact has been made, the smile goes away in an instant. There's still some room for bonding and attachment growth towards both of us. NEWS FLASH... in the time that it's taken me to write this much, she's responded to tickling with smiles and almost-laughter!

On the down side... not there's really a down side... she has some developmental delays. She hasn't demonstrated that she can move around on her own. I understand that she may be scared stiff, but she hasn't really demonstrated much of an ability to walk. She can sit up forever, though. She'll get there! She can't speak a lick of English either! Go figure!

Until next time, great is Thy faithfulness!