Sonia day!

What a day!! One of the most emotional and certainly best of my life!!

I woke up filled with emotion thinking of Sonia and how her world would be turned upside down today. She had a 4 hour drive from her orphanage to the Guangzhou Civil Affairs office today and everything and everyone she knew changed.

At 2pm, the three other families and I took a bus to the office. We spent a few minutes anxiously waiting. While we waited, I watched a couple other families from other agencies brought together... one baby crying deep cries when handed to her new Mom and an older girl recognizing and running out to hug her new parents. Wow... words can't describe the emotion!

The next thing I knew, I saw Sonia. I didn't realize until the second repeat that they had called me. I raced over and Sonia's nanny passed her to me. Sonia's eyes were wide and she was clearly confused and scared, but she didn't cry. In fact, she still hasn't made a whimper. After a few minutes of seeing nothing other than Sonia, I realized that the nanny and vice director of the orphanage were watching from a short distance. They came back over and shared a few smiles and words with Sonia and a joint picture. It was clear that they were very emotional as well and had dressed Sonia up in a beautiful pink dress with care.

Sonia came out holding the little panda that was in the care package I sent. But, she didn't hold it for long. After a little while, her eyes started tearing up and she was clearly tired and upset. However, the blue ball we produced out of the backpack was quickly clutched. The nanny looked surprised but smiled when she came back over to us and saw Sonia holding the ball (much like the one in the pictures I received from her birthday).

Sonia looked curiously around during the bus ride back to the hotel, finally falling asleep in my arms. After a short stop in our room, there was some paperwork to fill out in our guide's room. My wonderful friends, Lori and Lacretia, took care of sorting through all the paperwork, taking notes on where and when we need to be tomorrow with what paperwork, filled out my forms except for my signature, ran back to the room for another document, etc etc. I'm forever grateful that they are here to share this with me!

Sonia and I spent the rest of the evening relaxing together with her dozing off and on in my arms... I got my little snuggler at least for tonight. After she'd been sleeping for a while, I finally laid her in her crib and she has been sound asleep ever since. I'll be anxious to feed her tomorrow morning but after her long day, I think what she needed tonight was some hugs and a good night's sleep.

I am over the moon in love with her! and so very blessed to have the chance to be her Mom!

Here's a few pictures from the day...