We have her!

Wow! Words can not express how today went. Annie Viola Fanghua is absolutely amazing. All of our prayers have been answered. We have had a very easy transition.

We met up with our group early this morning in the lobby and drove through the streets of Hefei. People that think morning traffic in Atlanta in bad have never been to Hefei. We finally arrived at the Civil Affairs Office. We go up to our floor and walk into a room that looks like a classroom with long tables with chairs at them. We immediately spot our travel mate's daughter. Then we turn and look to the side and Annie is sitting quietly on her teacher's lap. She is playing with one of the toys we sent her. Unlike our previous two adoptions, we did not rush in and grab this little one. Instead, we let her stay with her teacher and we talked to her and fed her cookies. After about 10 minutes of this, I could not stand it and tried to pick her up. Big mistake! I promptly put her back down, she quieted down, and was happy again. I pulled out a bottle of juice and when I started helping her drink the juice, she decided to stand up and come closer to me. Her teacher used this time to slip away. Annie had no problem with me then. She ate continuously from about 10:00 am until 1 pm! Then she took a two hour nap, woke up in a good mood, ate a snack , went for a walk, and then went to dinner. She seems to be very healthy except for a little cold and smart as a whip! She played a game tonight where she would point to an object and tell me in Chinese what it was.

She is a cutie. And, she will fit right into the family. This girl can eat! At a little over two years of age, we think she is a little over 35 lbs. So much for what her doctors predicted! She will eat almost anything, except for apples. At lunch she ate a bowl of steamed eggs, a bowl of rice with some chicken, some broccoli, some watermelon, two cookies, part of steam bun, and an gelatin dessert. The biggest issue we are facing is that very little that I brought with me will fit her. She is about a 3T.

She is adjusting nicely although this evening, she is definitely a Mama's girl! Mama was finally able to go shower after getting her to sleep in Mama and Baba's bed. She is too long for the baby crib in our room.

Now for what everyone has been waiting for, PICTURES!