Claire Day!!!

Well what a wonderful and emotional day we had!!   The day before "Claire Day"  (we are going to call that "Forever Family Day" because this is the day that we became a family of five) we took a train from Hong Kong to GZ to meet our guide.

 We happened to be sitting right next to a couple who is also adopting, and they happen to live near us! What a small world that is!  I'm hoping we can stay in touch once we get back to the states!  They took a picture of us on the train.

 Our hotel room.  We requested a suite which is really nice-very big. 

 We had the entire afternoon to ourselves after we were dropped off at the hotel so we walked around and took in the sites around GZ.

 That night we both hardly slept and we had until two before we met our guide so I took the time to start unpacking everything.  I think I brought enough food for us all! :)

 All the cute leggings and bows!

 I got all the toys packed up and ready to go...

 along with presents for her nanny and the director of her orphanage.  We weren't meeting our guide until 2 so we had all morning and early afternoon to just sit around and be nervous.  SO nervous.  I was so excited but also so nervous.  It was very similar I think to giving birth... I was so excited to finally have the boys there but I was really dreading having to go through labor.  This was the same, SO excited to finally meet her but not looking forward to her being so sad and confused.

 Here we are waiting for Claire!  There were quite a few other families there waiting for their children, I'd say at least 10 families.

 Then all of a sudden they said, "she's here!"  So we walked around the corner and there she was!!! I was very teary-eyed walking into the center but it was so quick when they handed her to us that I didn't even have time to cry! :)  (Our guide is in the background video taping)

 She was so so good.  She was so overwhelmed and scared, I could feel her little heart beating so fast.  She only cried about 1 minute, the rest of the time just looked around at everything going on around her.

 She actually made eye-contact with us right away which I was so happy about!  Sometimes everything is just so overwhelming for the children that they shut down and don't look at you for awhile.

 We were able to sit there and get to know her for probably 10 minutes and then her nanny came over and we were given the opportunity to ask her some questions and take a photo with her.

 Then we were done!  We left as quickly as possible-that's one nice thing about not traveling with a group, we don't have to wait on a big group.  Although it would be nice to have others going through it with us!  Luckily we have still met other very nice families.

 We went to a huge grocery store to get a few snacks, cereal, and baby food, then went back to the hotel and fed her.

She ate right away!  She does NOT like the formula I brought but will drink water/juice so at least she's getting fluids.

 The entire rest of the day we just spent hanging out with her.  She didn't cry at all, just looked around and kind of interacted a little bit with us.  We were able to get her to stand but she's very wobbly and weak.  She mostly wants to be held by us.

 She took a few steps with daddy holding her hands. 

 I didn't want to change her out of the outfit she came to us in so she'd  stay as comfortable as possible, but I did find a flower to match the outfit :).

She was so tired that at night we bounced her a bit, layed her down, and she was out for the night without a peep!  She slept until 6 am, it was amazing!!!    It was a wonderful first day with Claire, and we are so so thankful for her!!