Gotcha Day 9/1

We woke up this morning already tired because we got to bed late. The time difference is hard! We were not meeting Anna until 4:00pm so we had some breakfast at the huge breakfast buffet (we get stared at a lot being the only Westerners). There is a lot of different food traditional breakfast food and Chinese food. After breakfast we wanted to take a walk and also go to a store. Only one guy at the hotel speaks English that is Jacy the trainee. He is now my best friend LOL.

 

We went to a little park next to the hotel and walked a few blocks to a little store to buy some water and noodles in a cup. We have an electric kettle in our room which is handy. The city seems huge and busy too me. So many buildings, cars, people, stores, buses, scooters, etc. Our room at the hotel is nice and very big. People smoke everywhere. When the AC turns on in the room you can smell the cigarette smoke.

Around 3:30pm our guide Vickie picked us up. She is super nice and speaks excellent English. She also has a twin sister. We drove a short way to the adoption office in Guiyang. It is in an old hotel they are renovating. It's like something out of the Matrix. There is all this debris and rubble everywhere and you take the elevator up and there is this little office. We were kind of early so we sat and waited. There was another family adopting a 10 year old boy. The mom was there with her 20-something daughter who is also a Korean adoptee. The mom was the first white person we have seen.

Vickie called and said they were on the way with Anna. Next thing I know she is practically running in shouting Ni Hao Mama! Ni Hao Baba! Ni Hao Zhe Zhe!  She knew us right away and was very happy and hugged us. She is very animated and very talkative. We don't understand a word she says LOL! Even though she speaks Mandarin it is a local dialect. Lee had to sign a bunch of papers and we had to apply our ink thumbprints to all the papers. Then Anna has to give an ink palm print. She arrived with the orphanage director even though she stayed with foster grandparents. We got to ask the director some questions. 

Then just like that they let us leave with her! We have to come back the next day to finalize the adoption paperwork. We went back to the hotel and celebrated with KFC which is right next door to our hotel. The girls were so wound up and running around playing. More tomorrow ...