We Made It!!!

We made it!  We arrived last night around 6pm which was just a little bit later than planned.  We met Xavier from the hotel right when we walked through border control with a big smile and a friendly handshake!  It did take quite a while to get our luggage but the process wasn’t too bad and we began the drive to the hotel around 7:30 which was about 30 minutes from the airport.  The drive was interesting….it was dark and raining and the driver was honking the horn constantly and slamming on the brakes.  He even rolled down his window to yell at a few people J  Adam and I were both surprised by the amount of people on the side of the roads…they were everywhere! 

We got to the hotel right about 8pm and our contacts from our agency and four other couples with their kids met us outside and gave us a very warm welcome.  I of course was so excited I am not sure I even said hello to all of them before I asked if Elysee was there and one of the ladies said we have a little surprise and there they were!  Both of them!  They were barely awake since it was past their bedtime but we got to hold them and kiss them…it was definitely one of the best moments in my life.  It felt exactly the same as when I held Eva and Eli for the first time J 

We went into our hotel room and did not even lay Elysee down on her bed before she was asleep!  The night went pretty good.  We didn’t have a bed for the baby so she slept in between Adam and I which I was really nervous about and then Elysee was laying next to us on a twin bed and she was all over the place and just about fell out of bed a few times so I was up a lot putting her back in the middle of the bed.  The baby only woke up once to eat and then it took her awhile to go back to sleep but she didn’t cry J  She just played.

This morning we woke Elysee up at 7 because they said she usually gets up to eat at 6 and she was so tired that she fell asleep at the table sitting up…literally…Adam caught her before she fell over!  So we put her back to bed for about an hour and then she got up and was a little happier J  She ate a piece of toast and a granola bar for breakfast and played patty cake with me for a bit.

Adam went to the grocery store which he said was a lot like a CVS combined with a grocery store and got us some food for the week.  When he got back we decided to take the girls over to swim but Elysee was not having that!  I am sure she had never seen a pool before and even though all her friends were in there, she did not want to get in so we went back to the room to make lunch and she started to cry and cry and cry.  She was screaming the same word over and over.  I can’t even explain to you what this did to my heart!  I had no idea what she was saying so after a bit, I walked her over the office to see if Xavier from the airport was there and he was and he immediately took her in his arms and said…we be back… and he took off with her to find one of the ladies that works at the hotel and they calmed her right down.  They carried her back to our room and got her some M&M’s and talked to her for a bit about us being her mama and papa and how we loved her and we had food for her and she was going to have fun with us…and then she sat in my arms clinging to me while she ate a peanut butter sandwich, a banana, some yogurt and a granola bar!  Then I climbed in bed with her and she fell asleep holding my hand and the Tiana doll we brought her J 

The baby is full of giggles and toothless grins!  She is eating and sleeping well so far and seems to be a really happy baby.

Please pray that God would give both of them a sense of peace with us.  Elysee seems to be a little scared but that is probably normal.  She has lived in 5 places in her three years of life with multiple new caregivers and we are just two more to her right now that she does not know.  Pray the Lord would bond us quickly and give us a love for each other that only he can give. 

Continue to pray for Eva and Eli too…Susan said they are doing well but Eva was a little upset last night because she didn’t get to say goodbye to us on Skype…our connection kept failing.  And silly as it may seem, pray that our internet works enough to call them every day J

Thank you for your prayers!

Lynsey