The Day She Walked In

  

waiting for our guide to go meet Abbi

WOW! So what a day! Of course it was an ear morning again with little sleep. I was pretty nervous as I tried to make myself lie in bed and go back to sleep so eventually I gave up and got ready. Once I was up my nerves calmed down a lot! It was replaced with adrenaline and excitement! I called my hubby so we could pray over our day! We made our way to breakfast and then downstairs. Walking around that whole morning I saw the faces of everyone looking like it was just another day! Of course for them it was not I wanted to shout TODAY IS THE DAY PEOPLE!!!

waiting in line at the bank

getting tickets 

changing money in bank

It is time to celebrate! Of course no one did! LOL We had to leave early because we needed to change our American money to Chinese RMB so we could get Abbi's ransomed ready. (Seriously, the words of the the guide as she rolled her eyes at them, "they need you to pay before they will bring your daughter in"...seriously people, they wanted heir "donation" first! All I could do was laugh!) We made our way to the bank which was a fun experience! You stand in line where they hand you tickets for the order in which you will be seen once they let you inside. Our guide had a blast teasing everyone else that she got number 1!!!!! She is a riot!!!!! You would think because we have a ticket which establishes what order you will get to go in that they would file in calmly and get in line once the doors open...NOPE! True to Chinese culture EVERY MAN IN AT ONCE!!!! Brought me back to my college days! Once we were in our cubby changing money a man can in and lingered behind us. If I hadn;t gone through this before I would have been crazy nervous being that we had a LOT of highly sought after American dollars and would have a lot of RMB, but he pulled out his calculator and began to talk to us in Mandarin. He was trying to get us to exchange our money with him at a better rate. Last time Josh, being Josh went for it! The bank will even help him do it right there!! But my sister had already started and I really just wanted to get out of there and get Abbi! Money was the last thing on my mind!

signing adoption papers

Once we were done we headed over to the civil affairs office where we would meet Abbi, I walked in super nervous not knowing what
order things would be done. With Isac we started filling out paper work then they brought him in, with Nina they brought her in and then we filled out paper work. But with Abbi, we filled out the paper work and then they brought her in. At first I was getting super nervous because they asked for Josh;s passport which we hadn't brought, we only brought a copy. But eventually they accepted that. Then they asked for a picture of him. Which I had thought the passport photo would be enough so we did not bring another one! I was sure I did not have one but I thought I have to at least look just in case! After looking inside I found Josh;s passport photos from last year tucked behind my extra ones I had brought from last year! I don;t know if Josh put them in knowing I needed them, or if I accidentally brought them when I grabbed mine, BUT GOD TOOK CARE OF THE DETAILS!
After all of that was done they brought in Abbi!

in walks Abbi

Right into my arms

saying good bye to her nanny

Off to start an adventure 

She came in with a smile on her face and as soon as I got down she came to me with open arms! Now I would like to say it is because they prepared her for us, and that may be, but Abbi honestly hugged the bell boy and sat on his lap already so I am pretty sure that is not the case! But she is VERY happy girl!She is also a very BUSY GIRL! in between paper work and feeding the child who acted like she had never eaten before, I was chasing her EVERYWHERE!!! She is seriously curious and LOVED being chased! Her nanny had tears in her eyes as she told me she was her favorite of all the kids! She said she was happy and so smart! (Both are very true!) They gave me a month supply of Abbi's medicine which I am SO grateful for! I can not WAIT to get this girl home! I am very sure she does not need all of this! But we are not going to change it now with out her doctor giving us the green light, seizure meds are too touchy for that!

Afterwards we made our way to the store where Abbi wanted every food she saw! Check out was fun as she saw the food and could not get her hands on it! I thought she was going to wrestle me to the ground! Her favorite snack...it is called Lonely God... :(, nice.
Later back at the room my sister in law and Emma went to get lunch while I played with Abbi. Medically, Abbi can not seem to hear ANYTHING. It seems she can hear if I bang hard on the table but she can not tell where it is coming from. And she is SO unstable! She walks like a a baby just learning to walk! If she is just standing still she does a lot of swaying and walking is a very unstable event. She does bed one of her legs a little but for the most part she seems to throw it out sideways to walk, (imagine someone walking with a prosthetic) which is why I think she is so unstable, She uses one hand all the time and the other she only uses to hold things that are small. But man watching her compensate for it is AMAZING! She will put things under her chin that she can not use her other hand for! I am pretty sure I may have seen a seizure or two but they were staring seizures if they were seizures at all, which are hard to gauge in children who have gone through all that Abbi is going through. Often times children which space out like that to kind of shut the world out for a little while so it it is hard to know which it could be. But the other seizure they are talking about, I have not seen yet.

Meeting daddy and big sisters!

Abbi is a fascinating child! She is reaching for everything she can find. She will either bring it to you with a smile, or she will pull it back with a smile and run hoping you will chase her! Her favorite game, running and waiting for you to chase her down and pick her up and swing her! The laughs you get when you do that are AMAZING!!!! Her second or maybe first,EAT!!! I have NEVER seen a child eat the way she does! Not even Nina who can eat a ton! We got to Skype with her sisters and daddy (the middle of the night for them) and they got to witness her eating! And when she blows kisses it is SO SO SO CUTE! She also loves to throw, hit and pull hair! All things that do not shock me coming from an orphanage. At one point she grabbed something off of the counter, threw it back on, then crossed her arms cocked her hips and shook her head with her little lips pursed! This girl is a teenager already! LOL!!!
After going to dinner I gave her a bath in the shower in a baby bath that our guide brought for us and she LOVED IT! She did not want any toys in there with her but she loved the water falling on her head! (Most small kids hate that!) After lotion-ing her up, holding her down with my legs to get a diaper on because girl does NOT sit still, I made her a bottle and laid in bed with her! You can tell this girl was a favorite! She made a lot of eye contact and let me feed her the bottle! She was pretty wired but finally laid down with the bottle and fell asleep in my arms! I moved her to the pack n play where she opened her eyes, looked into mine and smiled then fell asleep! It is 6am and she is still sleeping! She slept through the night!!! She has so far made her way to my lap, reached for me to hold her and let me feed her and made a lot of eye contact! ALL VERY good signs of furture attachment!
Tonight when exhaustion set in and adrenaline tanked, my heart missed  Josh so much! I hate that he missed meeting his daughter when I did and I KNOW how in love he will be with her! I know it is hard for him to watch from the other side of the world! I haven't slept through an entire night since I have gotten here and running after Abbi could be an Olympic sport! I am tired!!! My sister in law is AMAZING and is helping me so much, but respecting our wished to let me do everything for Abbi right now so she can k now I am her soul provider. With that and little energy, my body is tired!
We are incredibly blessed to have been chosen to be Abbi's parents! I am head over heels for this girl and I CAN NOT WAIT to get her home!
We have a few more appointment this morning as we officially make her a Noll!!!!
Pray for me to sleep better and have more energy and perseverance! I want to cherish this time in China in my daughters home country and not wish it all away! Pray for Emma as she is for sure having times of being home sickness! Pray for my sister in law as I know her sweet spirit is giving it all she has to sit back and not love all over Abbi! (Did I mention what a rock star she is?!?!?!?! And pray for Abbi! There has not been any grieving or any huge surprises yet, but that does not mean there wont be and I pray she lets us love on her!

Good night sweet girl!!!

Thank you all for your comments, your prayers and your support!!!!
Thank you to our church who has prayed us through this journey, supported us financially and through prayers, set up a meal train before we ever even left for China and for the people who are so excited about Abbi that they want to be her buddy at church! (By the way who ever that ends up being I hope you buy some really good running shoes and do not plan on dressing up for church any more!!! haha)