Our hearts have grown bigger today!

She has finally arrived!!!! I'll give you the details after many photographs!





First, let me say that she is adorable, amazing, and beautiful and absolutely perfect!
We left for the Civil Affairs building (shared with a hotel) at 2:35. We were due there at 3:00. We arrived at 2:50, got off the bus and headed to an empty room with a stage, podium, and various flags. Across the hall were the babies. I spotted them and saw some of their beautiful faces and started to cry. It was 10 minutes (aka an eternity) before the CCAA officials started a quick speech and introduced the orphanage directors. There were three orphanages represented. They then started bringing babies in one by one and announcing the parent's first names. The first girl to be brought in was 3 years old. I must say it was heart wrenching to hear her cries. One of the guides was talking to her, but she screamed bloody murder. The officials brought out each of the thirteen babies one at a time. Flora was the second to the last. I did not see her in the room across the hall while we were waiting. Several girls were trying to escape their room to our room. I watched as Kim, Ruby's mama, went all paparazzi on a family when they received their daughter. It was a highly emotional moment. I was glad to be there with all of those families.
Flora was held by the orphanage director, while they verified Joe's and my identity. Once we were cleared she was placed in my arms. I handed her off to Joe, who then handed her off to Emily, who then handed her off to Claire. She was stoned faced, not crying, not sure, but okay. Then she started to cry after 5 minutes. We walked her, we switched off. But what satisfied her was the huge red ball in the room across the hall, where she had waited for us.
We learned a lot about Flora in the first few hours:
1. She sucks her left thumb and cups her right hand around her thumb.
2. She quiets quickly and gets upset quickly.
3. She laughs out loud a hearty laugh (I had her laughing within the first 45 minutes).
4. She will eat the formula we brought for her. We offered her a bottle exactly at 4:00 on the nose, 4 o,z and she drank it all.
5. She is entertained, to say the least, by her sisters. They had her howling!
6. Her dad got her to fall asleep first, in a football hold in the hallway hanging out with Clare and Ruby.
7. She seems to be a fairly sound sleeper as she is asleep next to us and we are talking with soft voices.
8. She loves her cheerios, especially when we feed them to her.
9. We love her more than we ever thought we could!
10. Her toes are goods, she stretches them out in a funky way when she is excited or her foot is stroked.
11. We found that walking her around soothes her.
12. The orphanage director cares about her because he patted her on the head and said good-bye to her.
13. She has two bottom teeth and two teeth emerging on the top.
14. She pead her first pea as soon as we opened her diaper, and it went on the bed spread. Oops!
We left the Civil Affairs office at 4:30 to head back to the hotel. We are awaiting to finish our paperwork for the night and eat pizza!
Holy crap! Our family is finally complete!!