How we Became Parents

Wow. What a whirlwind we have been through in the last 24 hours! Yesterday was the most exiting and emotional days of our lives. Meeting Ty was a dream come true.

The morning started early with a trip to the Civil Affairs Bureau (CAB). We thought we had the first appointments of the morning, but upon arrival we saw 2 big buses already parked outside. Undeterred we crammed too many people into a too small elevator and made our way to the 7th floor. Immediately we could hear all the commotion - babies crying, people shouting, general chaos.

Almost instantly the family in front of us was stopped by a nanny holding a baby and a "Who Loves Baby" book. They recognized the family from the pictures. It was one of the most touching moments I have ever seen; watching them see their baby and say their first hello. After getting caught in their moment, I finally stopped to think about things. This baby was from the same orphanage as ours. Could the other baby being held close by be Ty. DH and I both looked again and again, but could not be sure. Finally someone walked by and asked if it was our baby and we just said "name?" She asked in Chinese and we heard Lu Yue Man. It was her!

The nanny let us give her a small toy and say hello, but she would not let us hold her. We are really not supposed to get the babies until the official documents are signed and the ceremonial hand over. I think the nanny just didn't want to let go of Yueman. Soon we saw her walking away with our baby, crying and trying to get away from the moment. This to me, was an incredibly touching moment. It was so comforting to know that this woman loved our baby so deeply.

We were soon shuffled into a large room full of people. It appeared that our three families were the only ones that had not received their babies yet. Everyone else in the room were already holding their children. I think they may have gotten them at the hotel earlier in the morning or the night before. (We spotted baby Kacey's mom and grandma there!) The officials tried to bring order and have everyone sit down, but there were just too many people. At the front of the room were the two nannies from Hefei SWI holding our children.

This is the place where I balled like a little girl. All the chaos, the crying nanny, the moment, all of it was too much for me to take. I remember that someone was trying to take our picture and I was crying uncontrollably and the DH was frantically trying to find a tissue! It took me a minute to get it together, but I did. I knew that I didn't want Ty to meet her mom for the first time as a blubbering idiot!!

We signed our papers and went up to the front of the room. The nanny handed her over and took off down the hall very quickly. We went hurriedly after her and someone yelled for her to stop. We gave her a gift and she allowed us to hug her, but soon went quickly out of the area. Ty just was! She looked around taking it all in. She didn't cry. She didn't really do anything. Along with one of our other families, we found a semi-quiet place down at the end of the hallway and took a minute to take a good look at our children and to just say hello!

Ty just sat in our arms, she didn't care which one of us held her. Her expression was just blank. She only fussed for a second when she saw another baby crying, but it was only for a second. I think she was in shock. We were (and still are) in awe. She was so beautiful. She was perfect. We were in love.

Finally the third family with us received their child and we all went back down to street level (we chose to take the stairs and avoid the overcrowded elevator). In less than an hour we had experienced the most exhilarating, life-changing moment of our lives!