June 28th- Double "Gotcha Day!"

Here we  are before we left the hotel this morning to get Dou Dou (translation – Little Peas). Like we did on the day we got Catherine, we took a photo of the crib before and after!  Except this time, Catherine is in Teagan's crib! She is holding the information sheet we have about Teagan.

For those of you who don't know, June 28th is also the anniversary of the day we got Catherine! A doubly special day for the Duffy Shaws! Let me just say before moving on, Catherine is a SUPER big sister. We are so proud of her.

After we left the hotel room, we joined the other waiting families in the lobby, for what seemed a very long time. We took pictures of our families before the babies arrived and plan to do the after shot when things calm down a bit.  I love this photo of all the big sisters (jie jies).

We took a short bus trip to a government office to wait for our children. The experience was quite different from our trip to Dianjiang  when we adopted Catherine. This time, there were many different SWIs represented this time and so the babies arrived at different times, in no previously determined order. The babies from Angel Home and Pingdingshan arrived maybe 30-45 minutes after we arrived and after some of the other families met their children. The good thing about that was being able to take photos of the new babies and families meeting for the first time.

Ok - now for what you probably have been waiting for - Teagan arrives! I saw the car arrive with Teagan, and spotted her in there. It's hard to describe the emotion - it's overwhelming really.
I believe I started jumping up and down and pointing to her and yelling "It's our baby!" This first two  photos are Teagan, coming in the door, in  the arms of one of the Pingdingshan official’s arms.  She is beautifu! But clearly a little stunned. It was VERY hot and loud in the room – read babies crying- and I cannot imagine what this transition was like for her. She has lived at Angel's Home for the past year, and in their note to us (See Below), Angel's home noted they consider her their child too. We have loved her since February 5th, but we are strangers to her.

I am going to be honest with you, I basically grabbed Teagan out of the SWI official's arms (see below).  In fact, when I did not think they were giving her to us fast enough, I demanded she be handed to me after announcing in Chinese that I was her mother. I did wait to do this after I saw one of the other babies go to their parents, so it is not as bad as it could be. 

She is wearing a dress we sent her in the care package! (Side note- it is a 6-12 month size....she is smaller than I thought she would be!). Most of the photos of us getting her are on other peoples' cameras. So, I will post more later as well.

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This is Catherine talking to Teagan. Teagan really likes her, and Catherine is the only family member who has managed to get a smile out of her.

 

I love these photos of both girls are Jason’s lap!

 In a change, one of the Angel Home founders was there with the Pingdingshan SWI officials. This usually does not happen, but there were special circumstances this time. So we were able to meet one of the founding ladies from Angels Home. She is the woman below in the yellow striped shirt. We are grateful we were able to speak with her briefly, thank her for what they have done, and we even have some photos. Angel's Home gave us a very large bag filled with clothes, a photo album with personal notes written to her, mostly in Chinese, so I will need to have those translated, her formula, bottle, some clothes, diapers, wipes, bowl, spoon and so on. How great is that?! I could also tell she received the 4 care packages we sent her! We also got back the cameras we sent to them. Can't wait to get those developed.

 

Here is the Angel Home founder, with us in a  group photo and hugging  Catherine.

 

After that, we stayed there for another two hours or so, waiting for other babies, and doing some paperwork. She fell asleep on the bus, and stayed asleep all the way to the hotel room. She napped for about an hour. We have spent the rest of the day napping, feeding and playing. She really likes stacking blocks and cups! Catherine, Teagan, and I spent some time banging the cups together, and putting them in stacks (Jason was doing more paperwork - it's hard to believe there is more paperwork, but there is).  Catherine has read her 3 books, and showed her different toys as well as the location of the hotel bathroom. Teagan also likes my sunglasses case.  She can walk, but seems to really just want to sit in our laps. She walked to Jason and hugged him. Then, sat down in his lap!

Catherine has been to the pool twice today with her friends - there are 6 of them now the same age or within one year!

I brought with us, 3 different kinds of cleft bottles, and I am glad I did. She did not like the first one, but was able to use the second one. It takes a lot of time for a baby with an un-repaired cleft to finish a bottle, and I can see how she ended up so small at 3 months old. I spent about 40 minutes on the first bottle of 5 ounces with her.  She also really likes the nubby sippy cups for juice. I think all things considered, she is doing pretty well. She has a very sweet personality.

Unfortunately, she fell back into a deep sleep at 5 pm here, which means we are looking at an early wake up tomorrow! You can't tell here, but she often sleeps in her signature hand position.

Jason and I want to thank you for all the support and love you have given our family during this process. It means a lot to all 4 of us!