GOTCHA DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well...........We have him!!!!!!! I don't even know where to begin. I guess at the beginning. Because China is having a national holiday this week and all offices will be closed some orphanages chose to bring the kids on Sunday. This meant a very long and a very late night. We spent the morning in Beijing touring the Summer Palace. It was sunny today and much more pleasant. We had a boat ride, went to the pearl factory (great pearls Kim!!) and ate lunch. We were ALL so anxious to just get going. We arrived at the airport around 2:30, checked in, said our goodbyes to our travel group and the three famlies heading to Gansu went off to our gate. We were delayed at the gate about 40 minutes and didn't take off until after 4:30. We had a two and a half hour flight and arrived in Lanzhou about 7:00. Megan meet us and off we drove for an hour to our hotel. I have to stop here and say than Lanzhou is so very different from Beijing. I have been told it is the poorest province in China and it showed. No fancy airport like in Beijing ( we flew into the new one on Fri which had just opened on wed). It is so barren, nothing green and so dusty. It is very hilly and they are all terraced to prevent errosion. It became a sullen ride as the magnitude of where are children would have grown up sunk in. BUT
we did arrive at our hotel and were told to be back in 20 min. (8:40 pm). OH MY GOODNESS!! Gifts to pack, toys to gather up, paperwork to find....it was madness!!! My family was actually five minutes late and the other two families were already doing paperwork. They were in an adjoining room from the kids and there was no table space so we were told to sit by the kids. I saw Andrew first, then Abby then HUDSON!!! He was all smiles with his nanny. I sat down close to him and he gave us a now all to familiar look, smiled and turned away. Mark sat down to do paperwork while the rest of us tried to interact with him. His personality was showing thru in the familiar arms of his Nanny. Soon, they pulled me away to sign papers and then all of the sudden I turned around and he was being placed in my arms. WELL.........as you can see below, he wanted no part of us!! It was beyond description. Such joy and such saddness all mixed together. To see everyone in the room crying and his nanny running out (that is here in the purple) was when I lost it. Steed told me to just take him up to the room so Jordan and I did while the girls stayed to help video Abby and Andrews famlies. Hudson fought me all the way.....my arms are sore tonight. Once we got to the room and I realized he was not going to let me comfort him I just set him down. He did calm down but continued to wimper and walk around dazed. One by one the girls and my parents came in. We pulled out cheerios and bubbles and got our first smile and laughs. He was fine till I went to take his coat off. I did manage to get it off and along with his pink shoes with flowers and black leather pants he had on a pink sweatshirt that said Princess.....(Kari, that was for you)...... Oh my...,.He loved a toy car we had and soon was happy. UNTIL,,,Major blowout!!! WOW!! He cleared the room. It was so bad my mom had to change him while I was gathering my wits in the hallway (new I would need mom around). SO....a bath was not even a question anymore. In he went and he was VERY upset. It was a quick bath and seemed to bond us a little as he held on to me for dear life. We snuggled for a few minutes in a towel and he let me really cuddle him. I thought he was going to go to sleep but he needed pj's on so that kind of woke him up. He now was mama's boy. He doesn't really want anyone to touch him and really pulls away. We went in the hallyway where soon he took Kailee's hand and off they walked, then Madi. We began to see his personality kick in. I think he is quite silly and made us all laugh. Aside from his head,,,he is rather tiny. MUCH smaller than I expected. My 3t's will be way to big which is mostly what I brought. His feet are also tiny. He is top heavy as his head is so round but we think he will grow into that...LOL!! His schedule said bedtime was 8:00 but this guy was up until 11:30, finally, falling asleep next to me on the bed. He is very interactive with everyone but doesn't really want anyone to hold him except me. He makes a lot of grunting noises but no words as of yet. He is such a character and exactly like we thought he would be. Wow!!! I can't believe I have a little snoring 2 year old behind me. Tomorrow we are up early to do more paperwork and hopefully while we are gone Jordan can figure out the video. We now have internet in our room and a bit more time so we should figure it out.
This has been an incredible, exhausting, exhilirating, LONG day. Every heartache along the way was worth it as this boy who was meant to be ours sleeps behind me. I can hardly wait till tomorrow!!! I am dying to talk with Jenn and Lisa to see how their nights went and get to know their kids tomorrow. Jenn and I were given SWEET pictures of Hudson and Abby together, holding hands and playing. It will be fun to see him see her tomorrow.
Hey girls meeting your little ones tomorrow....nothing can prepare you!!! Thinking of you and can't wait to meet back up at the end of the week!!
Thanks to all who have commented. It means more than you know to know how you are watching and praying. I have followed so many myself and I know how exciting updates are. We will keep them coming!!!!!
(Can't see what i am doing so hopefully the pictures worked and show a little of our evening).