RUBY!!!

I couldn't stop thinking about Ruby all this morning. Mom's tummy jumped so many times she was nauseous. We left the hotel for the Civil Affairs building at 2:00 pm. When we got there, the babies weren't there yet. We sat down in the waiting room and waited 5 or 10 minutes, and then the orphanage director and two workers came in, carrying Ruby and Claire (the baby adopted by the other family from Bethany that's here in Changsha with us). We were able to recognize Ruby easily, as there were only two babies to choose from. She looks so much like the close up picture with the red background, with a little bit longer hair. She's ADORABLE. She had the little stuffed bear and blanket we sent her a while back. The ladies gave us a packet full of pictures of her at the orphanage!!!! That is very rare. It's also rare for them to give her back to us with the stuff we sent her! She has her bear in almost every single on of the orphanage pictures they gave us. :) It will be so good for her to have those two familiar things in the midst of everything else being so completely new to her.

She didn't cry at all when she was handed to Mom. This sounds good, but it could be kind of sad. You kind of hope that the babies will cry, because that means they attach to people well and are sad to be taken away from them. If they don't cry, it sometimes can mean that they have somewhat shut down emotionally. Then again though, she had a 7 1/2 hour car ride today with someone she didn't really know, so she may have already cried when they left the orphanage. Another good sign that she's not shutting down emotionally is how expressive she's been. She's laughed and babbled and giggled. She seems perfectly fine. The only thing is, she has a little bit of a cold, so she coughs some. And she's obviously VERY tired from being in the car for so long. They had to leave at 4:30 this morning to get here!

She's so sweet... and very well-behaved. We love her to pieces, of course! I am so happy for her and how much love is going to be surrounding her. Her life is going to be so different than it would have been. This day has been more emotional than I thought it would be. It's such a relief to finally have her with us.

Sad story - I don't have pictures from when we received her yet, because our camera died, and we had to use Grannie Annie's, and we can't upload pictures from it yet because we don't have the right cord. We're buying one soon, and I'll upload those as soon as I can (probably tomorrow). But I do have some pictures of us here in the hotel. I also took pictures of some of the photos they gave us of her at the orphanage.

Thank you all for your prayers. We love you people!

And HAPPY 70TH BIRTHDAY, Grandpa Jim!!! We love you!! :)

Abbie















Pictures of the orphanage photos... (sorry they're not very good)