We have our little peanut!

This morning started off pretty early and warm for us.  Unfortunately the A/C wasn't working in our room.  So when we woke up, it was quite hot and humid.  Not so lovely.  Fortunately, we were able to call our guide Emma to help us arrange a new room before leaving for Havi.  Now that's saying something about our guide because it wasn't even 6:00am!

We filled up on food at the breakfast buffet. Then Patrick headed out to get some snacks for Havi.  We met our guide Emma in the lobby at 9:00am.  It was nice to finally meet Katie, who is also with our agency.  We had a nice drive over to the civil affairs office.

We arrived at 9:30am, and when we walked into the room, this is what we saw!

 I didn't even have my camera out.  Thankfully my new camera backpack has a side access panel.  So I whipped it around and pulled out my camera quickly.  The hotel we are staying in had placed a teddy bear in the crib.  So we brought that along with us.

 We let Caleb and Madeline approach her while Patrick and I stayed back.  She looked them up and down for a long time.

 Notice her adorable split pants and Madeline's dirty knees?  My knees matched, as I spent most of my time on them...on the dirty floor.  We also brought her a doodle board. She tried carrying both around with her.  She didn't like the juice or the lollipop.

 One of the other families also adopting from Taiyuan but with a different agency brought a whole arsenal of toys.  Caleb and Madeline snatched up their bubbles.  Havi loved them!  

 She has the cutest little scrunched up face when she laughs.....and cries.  Caleb played Andrea Bocelli  on his phone for her.  She didn't seem to mind.

 At some point while we were completing paperwork and following her around, the staff from the orphanage left.  They were so sweet. They gave us a copy of Havi's finding ad and also returned the USB thumb drive we sent with the cake care package.  They put over 150 photos and a half dozen videos on it!  It's such a treasure. 

All the while we were there, Havi really wasn't interested in me or Patrick.  I got a half smile when I showed her her photos on the back of my camera.  That was about it.  She kept swatting my hand away from her any time I tried to approach her.  She let Patrick hold her first.

 Do you see the two bags he is carrying in the photo above? Those are from Havi's foster family- one was filled with snacks and the other with clothes, shoes, and other personal items.  The foster family also wrote us a letter, which our guide Emma translated.  It was so heart warming.  You can tell how much they love their little Zhang GuanXue.  They want to meet us.  And they hope we can bring Havi back to see them when she is older.

Before we left we took our adoption family photo.  As Patrick was paying, Havi decided she was leaving.  She walked outside, and as Caleb and I tried to keep her from falling off the steps, she yelled her disapproval at us.  She's not short for an opinion, just like her sister.

As we drove back to the hotel, we waited in the van for Katie to run to the store with her new son.  Havi decided she was going to feed us as well as herself.

 The trauma of it all finally caught up to her, and she fell asleep on my lap during the drive back to the hotel.  We came back up to our room to go over some more paperwork, and she continued to sleep on my chest.

 Once she woke up, she decided to check out the room. She had a ball with her brother and sister and the bubbles.

 Patrick went with Madeline to grab lunch while Caleb, Havi, and I stayed back in the room.

 She had fun with the iPad and the stacking cups.  Then just before Patrick and Madeline returned home, Caleb asked what was on the carpet by the window behind Havi....oh that was just poop.  So I scooped her up and put her on the potty. She climbed off and proceeded to poop on the tile right by the front door.  That's when Patrick and Madeline returned.  Poor girl has some serious diarrhea.

That's when the crying for her foster mom began, as we tried to clean her all up.  It wore her out and she fell asleep again for a good while.

When she finally woke up, she started crying for her foster mom again.  Thankfully she lets us console her.  We thought we'd get out of the room and head down to the pool for the big dumplings.  They swam a little while Havi and I watched.

After swimming we got some dinner at the hotel.  Havi LOVED the watermelon.  She wanted all the watermelon on both her brother and sister's plates.  She even tried to copy me when I said its name.  So cute!

Once back to the room, she sat down with the DVD player and some Pleasant Goat.  She was tired and almost fell asleep on the floor.  But then she suddenly woke up and was crying again for her foster mom.  She motioned to the window. So I went over. She started reaching out the window for her foster mom and banging on it.  It's so heartbreaking to watch.

While she does prefer me to console her, she is still going to both Patrick and me.  So we are going to continue fostering that.  After sitting on my lap for a little bit, she saw Caleb climb into his rollaway bed.  She was checking him/it out.  Then she got down off my lap, reached for my hand and started walking me to our king size bed.  I lifted her up on it, and she climbed right into bed and laid down!

So that's our Havi Day.  Caleb and Madeline were fantastic with her.  It was so awesome to witness.  We are so in love with her.  She has the cutest, huskiest laugh for an itty bitty girl.  It's so funny.  Anyway, tomorrow afternoon we will finalize the adoption.  Thanks for following along and sharing our joy with us today.  All praise be to God our Father!