Look Back on Gotcha Day!

I have been having a hard time putting my thoughts down on paper. The emotions are just so hard to describe.

When we got to the adoption center we went up the elevator. Right after we sat down, I looked over to one of the families in our group and they already had their baby. In our group there were 10 families. 9 of them were from 3 different orphanages and one was a special needs (cleft lip pallet) 2 ½ yr. old, from another orphanage. Anyway, after the family with the special needs girl, they announced the families with babies from the Xinhua orphanage to come. We walked over a little and they said "Robert & Colette Walker". We were the first in our group. I was shocked, didn’t think we would be first. They just handed her to me. Bob and I walked around the corner to make room for the next family to be reunited. I didn’t want to cry, but the emotions just came flooding. Bob and I both cried. This didn’t startle Olivia. She kept looking around at the crazy chaos. She didn’t look at us. Or at least I don’t think she did.

I sat down with her and held her on my lap while the rest of the people got their babies. Most of the babies were crying. Olivia, just kept looking around, eyes wide open. She wouldn’t look at me though. She was being so good that I didn’t want to startle her, so I kept quiet and didn’t look in her face. This seemed to work wonderful. She never cried at the Adoption Center. We then all got loaded up in the bus and headed to the the grocery store. Half way through our shopping I handed her to Bob and he held her and she did fine. After that we came back to the room in the hotel. She did not cry until I put her down, she wanted to be held. It still though wasn’t a bad cry. We then hung out in our room. We put her down on the floor and she was grabbing the different toys. She wanted something in her hands. Then we stood her up and she walked. YES, SHE WALKED. We couldn’t believe it. She is 11 ½ months old. Megan didn’t walk till she was 13 months. This was so unexpected, I expected her to be more delayed. Olivia is very curious about things. They had said this in the info that we got back in January, but I didn’t know how much to believe. Well, they were right. She took a 2-hour nap and I went and did some paperwork. Which was giving us temporary custody for 24 hours.

Bob & I were exhausted and went to bed at 9:30. We put her in her crib, which was right next to our bed. Bob fell asleep right away. Olivia would fuss a little. I put my hand through the crib bars then took it out. She then put her hand through the crib bar and grabbed my hand. Then she would let go, so I would take my hand out, then she would grab my hand again. She kept doing this over and over. Then she started laughing & laughing. She was smiling and giggling. So, much that it woke up Bob. Olivia continued to do this for ½ hour. It was precious.

Colette