Gotcha Day and a Birthday

Yesterday we took a short drive to the Civil Affairs office at 8:45.  We got there shortly before 9 and waited about 20 minutes for Nola to arrive.  We were in someone's office for the meeting, with 2 desks, a couch, a table and two chairs.  When her car pulled up, we watched her from the windows as she got out, waved goodbye to someone and came into the building. 

She was very shy (to be expected) and wanted nothing to do with any of us.  She had a large group of people with her, both from the orphanage and from the Christian Action organization that works in her orphanage.  We finally got her to warm up eating some snacks and playing with some toys.  We were in the office for about an hour I would guess and then left to take some pictures.

We stopped to take the family picture that goes in the adoption papers.  Nola wanted nothing to do with being held or holding hands with us, but did want to hold hands with Maddux walking down the street.  We got back to the hotel and she started to play with her toys and warm up a little bit.  She's still not too sure about Baba, but we'll work on that.

We hung out in our room for most of the day- there was a bad storm with alot of sand this afternoon so we could not go out.  By dinner it was better so we ventured out with our guide to Pizza Hut for dinner.  We went back to our hotel and had birthday cake that our guide had picked up for Nola.  She wasn't too sure about the cake, but loved the cherries.  We only had tears at naptime and bedtime today - much better than we were expecting.  Finally got her down for a nap sitting on Jen's lap.

We finally got her out of her clothes into pajamas - she came with 4 shirts and 3 pants on.  She is small but we'll be better able to tell tomorrow.  She also loves the shoes we brought that light up.

Some things we learned today:
- Nola is potty trained day and night !!!!!
- She is allergic to mangos
- She is very stubborn (just like her paperwork said)
- She has been very well taken care of and loved by her foster family

Tomorrow we will finalize the adoption, notarize some papers, go pick out books for the orphanage, and then visit the orphanage and meet her foster family.

Some pictures from today.