Finally! A Family of Four!

It is official! In the eyes of the Chinese government, Rylee is officially our daughter! Today was a day filled with lots of emotions!! In the morning, we completed our final paperwork and in the midst of all of the final documentation, we thought that we were not receiving Rylee, but rather another child as her picture on the document did not match others. But God is good and it is her! (Remember the birth mark on her hand? Isn't it just like God to use a mark that some would see as a blemish, to confirm this was his child for us?) We were able to confirm that this was the child God had promised us it was by the birthmark on her left hand.

OK, so back to the good stuff.....We left at 11:30 to meet our babies (18 babies for 18 families....what an adventure). Luckily, we were the first family in our group to meet our child (Mike didn't see it as quite so lucky as he did not feel prepared with either the video camera or the digital camera). As you can tell by the pix, I think he did just fine. Rylee was less than thrilled - I think it was in response to my emotional breakdown. It took her awhile to calm down - Mike came through and got her to relax. Although it was sad to see her cry, it was good as she knows how to cry, and to see how attached she had become to her caregivers. Many of the other children in the group were fairly stone faced and we have not heard a peep out of them. During the transition, the women that handed her over to us came over to her with tears and tried to explain to her "Mama, Dadda, brother". They left crying. Well, we asked who these women were and they told us workers at the Civil Affairs office. When we returned for our 3 hour paperwork marathon, they were actively seeking us out. Once they found us, they checked on Rylee. They seemed pleased. Well, it just did not add up for us why they kept looking for us. Mike was relentless in tracking down our guide to help us find out who they were, as we just sensed that there was more to this story than just workers in the civil affairs office. Mike was able to speak to the women through our guide/translator, and come to find out, they work in the orphanage that Rylee lived in. They were not her nannies, but they did say that they were close to Rylee and knew her very well. They left crying and got us going again...We have taken our oath that we will provide her a good, loving home and all the opportunities available and received our adoption certificate. So, it is official, she is a Reagle!

P.S. Before we were able to get this posted, as promised our guide brought the director of the orphanage and several of the workers by our room. We had one last chance to ask them questions, and they had one last chance to hold and hug on her. Needless to say this was both an extremely happy yet extremely sad time for us. It was comforting to us to know that she feels safe with us as she did not cry this time when they left. Good Night!