Day 2 with Ella

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

2:31 PM

So far so good! Ella totally slept in this morning and we had to wake her up to get down to breakfast before we headed to the provincial office to sign paperwork. She was a sound sleeper last night (after she cried herself to sleep-sad face-). Ella and I shared a bed and I had her feet in my face more then once. She wears braces on feet at night, so this isn't as benign as you might think. It has been such a whirlwind for her I know she must be tired.

As I am writing this, Dave and Ella are both sleeping soundly. I had a hard time sleeping last night (feet in my face) and I also wanted to write about our experience with being with Ella. So, at 2 AM I got up and did "The Day" blog post. Ella slept through it all, but around 3:30AM, Dave woke up to my typing. So Dave and I were both up. At around 5AM I was getting sleepy and went back to catch some sleep before it was time to get up and get going. Dave stayed awake. I think both Dave and Ella need this time to rest and recuperate.

This morning we went to provincial office at finalize the adoption. It was fun to not only sign all the paperwork, but also use an ink pad to place our red thumb print by each signature.  We were able to get everything notarized and now we just wait for it all to be processed. On Friday our paperwork and Ella's passport should be completed. Friday morning Dave flies home to the boys and Friday evening Ella and I head to GZ to do the US portion of the adoption and get her visa.

We brought gifts for the orphanage staff and officials. When it came time to exchange gifts, we got a priceless gift from the orphanage, a CD filled with photos taken by Ella's foster parents. The photos are from 2011-2013, just amazing.  She calls one of the girls "sister" in the photos. We got your typical gifts for the foster parents, staff and officials (perfume, lotion, cologne, aftershave, chocolate.) But we also brought gifts for the children at Ella's orphanage.  I got a few art supplies that I thought they could use. However, as time to travel was getting closer, so many people asked if we needed anything or perhaps have a baby shower for Ella. I thought it would be great to have more art supplies to give them, I put the word out that we would be giving art supplies and so many neighbors dropped by with crayons, coloring books, water colors. . . you name it. We had two large gift bags of art supplies and when we presented the gifts to the nannies they were shocked at how many items there were. They kind of joked about how heavy the bags were. They were truly grateful and said the children would love all the new supplies. That was a great moment in my day.

We got done with all the paperwork around 11AM. We headed to KFC for lunch (they have a small indoor playground.) Ella had a blast on the slide. I got some great video of it. After lunch we headed back to the hotel and sacked out for naps.

Now, everyone is awake and we are going to head to the pool. So far just a lovely day and things are going well. I am going to miss Dave when he leaves. I think Ella will too. Well, one day at a time. We shall see what tomorrow brings!