Don’t get too excited, no official date yet, but they think we are going to be traveling in February!  Also, I have been thinking that if we do go in February it would be for a Feb. 15th Embassy Date.  As far as I understood, every agency has a standing appointment with the Embassy and that would be ours.  But I guess those standing appointments have gone by the wayside.  So, that does make me think that February is still an option!!  Yippee!!!!  Hopefully we will know more soon!

Thought you might enjoy some more pictures of Emelia.  We’ve gotten her room pretty much ready to go.  All we need now are blinds for the window.  The girl has more clothes then she could ever possibly wear!

I really do have a lot to do before we leave to go get her, but for some reason I can’t bring myself to do any of it until we have an Embassy Date.  I need to find clothes and toys to bring with us for her.  I need to buy more formula and hand sanitizer to donate to the care center (if anyone else would like to donate, let me know!).  I need to figure out what to bring for her for food, I need to buy diapers in her size and the list goes on and on!  Our life is about to change dramatically and I can’t wait!

I have to say that this part of our adoption journey has been the hardest.  Nothing is happening.  We have met our daughter, held her in our arms, she is legally ours and now we just wait for an Embassy date.  It is so weird almost like none of it is even real.  Sort of like we were never even in Africa one month ago.  There was such a build up for that trip and now we are home and our routine is back, but we are still apart from her.

Word is that we won’t have much notice once we get our date for travel.  That is good and bad.  Good that we won’t have to wait long once we know when we are going and that I won’t have to fret about the journey for too long.  But bad because the flights might cost more and we will need to have a plan in place for the boys.  That is sort of hard to do without a certain date.

There seems like there is sad news all around lately.  News of an Embassy date would sure brighten up these long, cold, dreary days!  Please continue to pray for us during this waiting phase.

We were waiting downstairs at the Thomas Center and the other adoptive parents who were there picking up their children told us to just go upstairs, because that is what they did when they came to meet their kids.  So we headed up the stairs, not knowing at all where we were going.  At the first level, we met one of the nannies who was holding Emelia, bringing her down to meet us.  Emelia was dressed in a cute pink outfit and she looked just like the pictures we had been sent.  We smiled at her and started talking to her, while she was in the nannies arms still, and we could tell right away that she was not particularly interested in us or our cute antics.  The nanny suggested we go downstairs to the meeting room, so we all did.

The nanny tried to make her comfortable and kept pointing to me saying, “Mommy” and she would point to Sean and say, “Papa”.  Emelia wasn’t really having it, whenever she would even act like she was giving her over to us, she would start to cry.  Finally she sat her in a big chair, and she started crying, but then I was able to pick her up to console her.  It took a few minutes, but it worked.  All of the other families were there with their kids, so that was helpful because she was distracted by the busyness of the meeting room.  It was so surreal to be holding her and it was hard because all of the families wanted to talk to us, and we wanted to talk to them as well, but we also wanted to soak in every detail of our little girl.  She eventually tolerated us and allowed us to hold her .  But every transition, even from standing to sitting, was followed by some tears.  Sean got a turn and was able to calm her down easily too.  In hindsight Monday was probably the best meeting with her.  We got a trace of a smile when I would hold her up above my head and bring her down quickly (which are what the pictures are of).  After a good hour she fell asleep in my arms.  That is the first time I got a little misty.  We have determined that Sean is a happy crier and I am a sad crier.  I wasn’t sad in this instance, but it took a good while for my happy tears to come.

Before she fell asleep I tried the whole walking around with her while she held my hands.  She wasn’t thrilled about it (transition), but she really wasn’t thrilled when I stepped on her little toes……..(I’m getting the Mom of the year award already!)

About an hour after she fell asleep one of the nannies came and told us that it was time for her to eat.  So I sort of moved her around and was ready to hand her off when she said, “Come on up”.  So we got to feed her some lunch.  They brought out a big bowl of pureed potatoes, tomatoes, carrots, chicken and spaghetti.  She really wasn’t into it.  Even when the nannies tried she didn’t eat very much.  I think she was having an off day.  I would be too if someone I didn’t know decided to care for me for a couple of hours!

The next two days were similar except it took her way less time to fall asleep.  So we would barely get any interaction time with her at all.  I really think it was her way to dealing with the new situation. She would just shut down.

We are just so excited to bring her home and get her used to us!  We have probably 6-8 more weeks to wait however.  It will go fast (at least that’s what I keep telling myself).