Good Morning!

After we initially met, we hugged & loved on each other for a while. Then we sat down to show her backpack to her with some of her toys. The Minnie Mouse phone & pink sunglasses were her favorites. Then she wanted to color in her Strawberrry Shortcake coloring book. We gave her the crayon box & guess what color she chose....ORANGE!!! She's already a Tennessee Vol Girl! Go UT!!!! We were very proud. We will have her singing Rocky Top by the time we are home! After playing, she teared up & became very sad. Her grief was very apparent. She sobbed! It was so hard to see her hurting so much! Almaz suggested that she might need one more night at Hannah's Hope. Almaz knows these children so well & her love for them is AMAZING! We held OE as she grieved. Soon an older boy, T, came to her after hearing her crying. Jenni, this was your son! He is amazing!!! He spent the rest of the afternoon helping OE understand that we were her new parents & that we would take good care of her. OE & T love each other very much! Eventually, OE told T that she wanted to go with us to the hotel! We were so relieved! At the hotel, we gave her suitcase to her with her clothes & shoes. She chose to wear the ORANGE shirt, flower pants, & brown shoes. I didn't put socks on her at first & she was quick to remind us that she needed socks! Then we played ball (the beach ball was a huge it). This girl can play soccer! Watch out, boys! You better practice your skills. She is good! Then we went downstairs for dinner. We ordered the stir fry chicken & spagetti. OE LOVED the fried rice. She ate the entire portion & we were thinking about ordering her more when we noticed her turning GREEN. Oh, how we had forgotten that we have to control how much food she eats! ;-) She pulled through without spewing & we learned a great lesson (which we should have already learned from R)! Then we went back to the room, gave her a bath, & she brushed her teeth! We sat in bed for a minute & snuggled & she brushed her My Little Pony's hair. Then she asked for her chapstick (which she loves) & a drink of water. Then she fell asleep in my arms! We are so blessed! We cannot wait for everyone to meet her. She is an absolute angel!!!!! We slept ok. She slept great, but it was a long night for us. It seemed never-ending! I kept dreaming of our time at HH & of home! We decided that from now on we will alternate nights taking Ambien (neither of us took any last night)! Ambien is our best friend!!!!!! Now we are up for the day on Monday. We ate breakfast & are going back up to the room to play. Eyerus prefers being in the room playing with us as opposed to being downstairs with the other families. It is clear she feels very safe with us! We have our embassy appointment this afternoon & we will go back to HH to play for a little while. We love you all very much & miss you tons!