Here She Is!

I finally have Madison! Yesterday was an amazing day. We began our day very early @ 7am and headed out for our VERY long (4.5 hours) VERY bumpy ride to the Phu Tho province of Vietnam. It was an extremely rural area but such beautiful scenery. Unfortunately I couldn't get much video because of the bumpy ride, but I did manage to get a little, and some quick snap shots as well. We arrived at the orphanage around 11:30 and were taken to the building where the babies were. I saw Maddie almost right away and she looked right at me. I had someone take my video camera when we walked in and was able to get our first meeting all on video tape. She wasn't very happy to come to me at first, she cried a lot. The nannies in her orphanage were wonderful, they were all so loving and each came up and held her and gave her big hugs and kisses. I was able to get all of this on video as well, it is very touching how they love all of the babies so much and care for them so well. They helped transition Maddie to me and eventually she didn't cry. We had to wait about an hour for the orphanage director to show up so we could meet with him and then we were on our way to Viet Tri for our G&R ceremony. Maddie slept most of the way there, bumpy roads and all. Our day ended very late and we did not get back to our hotel until around 8:30p.m. we all skipped dinner so we could focus on the babies. I gave Maddie her first bath (which she did not like) and a bottle and she fell fast asleep around 9:00 and slept all the way through until 6:00 a.m. Right now she has quite a shy personality and is very sensitive at times. She doesn't like for me to put her down and when I do she cries. But once she falls asleep, she is fine on her own in the bed. I didn't see any smiles from her yesterday, but today and especially tonight at dinner her silly little smile started coming out. She wrinkles up her nose, squints her eyes and does a cheesy little smile. I haven't been able to capture it on camera yet, but I will keep trying. We applied for her passport today and will get it sometime next week. Once we have that, we get her visa and shortly after that we can come home. Meanwhile we will continue to enjoy the sights of Hanoi, it is such an amazing city and country.