At about 3:30pm local time on Sunday March 1st, we finally got to meet Natalie. All of the families were anxiously waiting at the hotel for the babies to arrive. The first group of 5-6 babies came in and they were so bundled up that no one really could tell which baby was which. However, Sandhya noticed that the very first baby had a picture of us in her hands - that's when we knew that we had Natalie. In the picture, Natalie is the furthest on the left, next to the woman in the green jacket.
Very shortly after all the babies arrived (about 14 in all), they were officially presented to us. Because there was also some paperwork involved (we had to have our passports as well as our official authorization), it's all kind of a blur, but we seemed to get Natalie fairly early in the process (and the process was really brief). Thankfully, Matt was taking a video of the whole thing - hopefully he did a decent job despite all the emotion and excitement involved - we're planning to post the video shortly. The funny thing is that we were so excited to get her and there were so many other people getting their little girls that we never had a chance to talk to Natalie's caregiver - no one in our group seems to have had the opportunity either. So much for learning all about her routines, likes, dislikes, etc. - of course, it's only now, more than 48 hours later, that we're thinking of it.
When we first got Natalie, we were amazed at how very quiet and calm she seemed - she didn't make a sound until we got back to her hotel room. Of course, she was really scared and shocked - that's why she was so quiet. Once we got back to the room, she realized what was going on and cried and cried. This went on for about 4-5 hours, but eventually she got really tired and slept through most of the night, which was a surprise. Of course, while Sandhya was settling in with Natalie, there was more paperwork for Matt to do.
The next day, Natalie was still pretty shaken up. She started to eat American finger foods, but didn't want a bottle of any kind. She immediately started bonding with Sandhya, but she was very nervous around Matt. At around 10:00am, we got to meet the Orphanage Director. He told us a little about the Fuzhou Social Welfare Institute and a little about our girls. The main revelation was that all of our girls had actually been in foster care, not in the actual orphanage itself. Later that afternoon, we went out to the Ministry of Civil Affairs to formalize our adoption in China - this took a really long time and was fairly involved. We also went to the police station to apply for Natalie's Chinese passport. We were supposed to go to have everything notarized, but we ran out of time. Later that night we found out that Natalie likes American baby food too.
Today, Natalie was much better adjusted and eating pretty much everything in sight. We also found out that her digestion works just fine too. The plus for Matt was that she allowed him to carry her around in the morning, which included our visit to have everything notarized. We also stopped at the local Wal-Mart to get a few supplies and eat some Chinese KFC. We spent the rest of the afternoon bonding with Natalie. Due to the shock of the process as well as just the natural time that she needed to get to know us, it seems like we learn something new about her every hour. At first, we were a little concerned that she was more developmentally delayed than anticipated, but most of those concerns are sorting themselves out as time goes by.