Gotcha!!!!

OMG... What a day! If I didn't have much of it on video and photos, I would not have believed it. We had breakfast this morning...not much as most of us were dealing with high nervous energy so eating may not have been in our best interest :)After Breakfast we met in the conference room to fill out a bit of paperwork and very much to our surprise and enjoyment, we all had a NEW photo of the babies! Sydney looks just like her Visa pic but a little older...absolutely adorable. We also got a copy of the finding ad( we already had one thanks to Jill!!!) We all met downstairs at 12:30 to get on the bus for the ride to the Civil Affairs office and we were told about the City of ChongQing and about what will happen once we get there. After a 20 minute ride which seemed to take forever, we arrived...the energy was like nothing I have ever experienced before, could cut it with a knife. We went up several flights of steps and turned the corner into a yellow room...in the room were all the babies( some were in walkers some being held by the nannies) and nannies and right away we spotted Sydney!!! They started calling names...we were 9th I was crying as soon as we walked into the room. It was our turn and they handed Sydney to us, it was so unbelievable that this little girl was ours!!! She did not really cry at all, sge was just very tentative and still is now after such a long day. Some of the babies, including Syd, smelled of sour milk but after an 8 hour bus ride for all of them, I am surprised they weren't worse. They all had on matching yellow outfits, the heavy type that you see lots of babies wear, with the typical split pants underneath. They had on 2 layers of clothes that were pretty new looking. Sydney, in a word, is beautiful. Her eyes are so big and that "lip"... it is still there and will be part of her forever!! We had to do the family photo right away and then we got to ask some questions to the nannies. We met her nanny and got a few photos of her, as well as letting Sydney say good bye. Syd was pretty upset when she had to come back to us. But I think it was important that her nanny get to say good bye and hold her one last time. After that we had to do the fingerprints for all of us...no footprints here. I think it is a ChongQing thing? We were there for at least an hour and a half which was wonderful to have that much time with the SWI folks. The director was not there unfortunately as we would have liked to meet her/him. We gave Sydney the worm rattle we brought and she LOVED it, would not put it down at all. We said our good byes and got back on the bus with all the babies. It seems that almost all the babies were in excellent condition with only minor things like upper resipratory rattling, runny noses, and one case of scabies to my knowledge. Sydney had none of this so far :) We got back to the hotel and the first thing we did was strip the awful smelling clothes off of her and give her a bath. She loved it! Splashing around in the water, she liked it a lot. She also got her first boo boo as she slipped a bit in the sink and bonked her head against the side...OUCH!! Poor baby! She can sit up by herself but not very strongly. She can lay on her belly and pick her head up fine. She can put weight on her legs and her calfs are like rocks because of all of the time in the walkers, but her upper legs are a little weak. She has the body of a 6 or 7 month old but she is heavy! I can't wait to see how much she weighs.She still has baby fat rolls on her legs and wrists! Her fingers and toes are very tiny. She fits into 12 month clothes but we may be able to squeeze her into the 6-9 but not for long. She has an itty bitty butt and size 2 diapers fit her for the moment. No mongolian spots that I have seen so far. We played for a bit in the room and at 4 pm we met Xi Xi in the lobby so she could take us around town to go to the store to buy diapers, formula(the SWI gave us a bag as well as rice cereal and her bottle and 2 gifts), stroller...we bought all three. She was fine in the stroller which surprised us a little. Man and when people say that you get stared at etc, believe it...it is constant but it doesn't bother me at all, that may change by the time we go home. We came back and Sydney was passed out. She was hungry I am sure so before we woke her we made a bottle. She only drank a very little bit of it, but we aren't worried, she went through a lot today. We then went out to dinner at Portico's here in the hotel. The Post family was there and they had ordered steamed eggs for their baby. I guess she didn't eat them as they offered them to Sydney. I figured she wouldn't be interested tonight, but boy was I wrong...she ate so much of it I thought I was going to have to stop her! She also had a few pieces of French fry...mmmm, mmmmm ...she will fit right in! After dinner, we came back to the room and changed her and put on some pajamas. She was so tired...took all of 5 minutes in her crib to fall asleep. She is not preferring either one of us right now, she will go to either fine. She is not quite yet at a happy playful stage, no real smiles and very hesitant about everything. I am sure she will get better each day. She also has 4 teeth on top and 2 on the bottom. She has Joe's hairline or lack there of :) and her skin is beautiful as are all the ChongQingers as it is so humid or wet here most of the time with a big lack of sun most of the time. So nothing to weather the faces and skin and it is kept pretty moist. Syd is asleep right now in her crib and she looks like an angel. I hope we have a smile tomorrow! I wish all of you could have been there with us to experience this moment...it will be in our hearts forever. Until tomorrow...
AM , Joe & Sydney Marie XinYan Rogers