December 5th, 2011 is the day we met our daughter. It was a day I will, of course, never forget. We were in the province that I believe has the most kids adopted out of it and the experience was very surreal. We went to the civil affairs building, I think about 2pm on a Monday. There were probably 30 families in a fairly small area all waiting to be finally united with their children. It was an amazing experience to have, within an hour 30 new families were created right there. The emotion is indescribable. We were the last ones! We actually saw Naomi by chance when we walked in through a door. She was screaming! Which was pretty much how it went. See below. We immediately had the opportunity to meet with the director of the foster home. She was amazing and we received several things for Naomi, including a "baby" book with several of her "firsts", many photos, a quilt made for her, and a quill made of her hair from her first haircut. We learned more about the care she had received and we are very, very lucky in that aspect. The
True Children's Home cared for her from the time she was about 5 months old. If you go to their website you will see Naomi (XiangDing) in several newsletters and photos. More about them in the future but we owe them a lot for the care of our daughter. We then waited, and waited, and waited until the orphanage staff showed up to transfer custody. Do you see a trend for this process, even at the end? We ended up being, I believe, the last ones. It was not love at first sight for Naomi, we weren't really expecting it to be. There was one moment of peace we captured, but we saw firsthand the strong will she had that day.
