We were in Nanning, China. We had been up for 36 hours straight, flying from Big City to LA, then to Guangzhou, then to Nanning. We had been given a couple of hours at the hotel to "rest". Har. Like we could rest. They loaded us onto a bus and drove us to a government office. We waited in a big room decorated in red and gold, with a dais, podium, flags. We heard them coming. Babies crying, crying, crying. The nannies came into the room one at a time, each carrying a baby. OmegaDad and I looked at each baby, asking each other, "Is that her? Is that her?" Finally, a nanny walked into the room carrying a baby that we recognized instantly. I gasped. OmegaDad gasped. "That's her!" we said simultaneously. She wasn't crying. She was solemnly looking around, eyeing everyone, trying to figure things out. They called our names. We walked forward. The nanny put her into my arms. We went back to our hotel room in shock. OmegaDad was enchanted, enthralled. I tried dressing her. As a first-time mommy, it was pretty hilarious--I didn't know what I was doing; she didn't know what I was doing...But we got it done one way or another. We have so many pictures from the first six months home of her with that same shellshocked look. Oh, she'd laugh and giggle and play...but looking back, we can see that she was scared out of her wits a lot of the time. Who are these people? What's going on? Am I going to be yanked away from here any minute, just as I get used to it? But as our fourth (FOURTH!) year together starts, I can freely say, she's happy, healthy, smart, funny, beautiful...and it's only in the dead of night that she goes back to that scared to death little girl, and it seems to be happening less and less. Categories: [Our Adoption] [Family] [Photo Posts] [Adoption Issues]