Ella Bettina XiaoFeng Tadjiki

"I prayed for this child, and the Lord has given me what I asked for." 1 Samuel 1:27

Today we welcomed Ella Bettina XiaoFeng Tadjiki into our family. As I sit in front of the computer, Ella is sitting on my lap, Maya is pushing Cheerios into Ella's mouth (which she clearly wants, even though she is receiving them passively), Cyrus is begging to walk with her (one of the first things Ella did was to take Cyrus by the hand and walk around the room with him while we watched, eyes wide and jaws on the floor) and Jasper is punching himself in hopes that he will make Ella laugh.

It will, once she warms up.

Let me start at the beginning. First we were late to the "gotcha" meeting because Robert found a shirt at a store that he really liked, but he needed me to see it before he bought it. It is white silk in traditional Chinese mandarin style and looks great on him. So he bought it, pulled it on and he and I, plus Cyrus and Kellie, raced to meet the rest of our travel group to go get our babies. The drive to the government office was about 15 minutes. When we got there we went upstairs to a room with several couples, some with children, waiting for their babies. We were told that our baby was in the building, but Molly and Joe's had not arrived yet, so we had to wait (!). So we sat and waited.

Just a few minutes later our agency rep, Jocelyn, told us it was time to receive our baby. We looked over at the door and saw a woman walking in, holding the hand of a baby girl who was toddling toward us. It was Ella. She was wearing new pink and white clothes and absurd pink plastic shoes. Tears came to my eyes when I saw her walking ... it wasn't how I had imagined it, yet it was amazing and wonderful.

While Ella was walking in, Robert was frantically showing Joe how to use our camcorder, which lucky for me left the way clear for me to pick her up and hold her.

Ella has not made a sound yet. Initially, at the government office, she seemed calm and interested in everything around her. She loved a sucker I brought her and slobbered it all over her hands and clothes. She even shared it with me. She was holding it out, and impulsively I leaned in and licked it, to see what she would do. She stared at me at first, then she thrust the sucker towards me for another lick. We played that game for a long time. When Cyrus reached a hand, as I said before, she reached back and they walked around together. We found out from the orphanage official that Ella had a special bond with one of the other children at the orphanage, a 4 year old boy who played with her and cared for her. Clearly, Ella was meant to have older brothers.

We were able to talk for a long time to the orphanage official (through our agency rep who interpreted). She said Ella is quiet and easy going, but quite active. She said once Ella managed to climb up onto a chair and sit on it.

Ella has a cold which they said she just got today. Her nose is runny and her breathing is noisy, but otherwise she seems quite healthy. Her cleft lip has a notch that I imagine will need to be surgically fixed at some point. She is wearing clothes labeled 3-6 months in size, but they are a little tight around the legs.

She fell asleep in the van on the way back to the hotel, and had a good nap while Jasper and Maya ooed and ahhhed and had to be forcibly kept away from the crib. When she woke up, she woke without a sound, but Cyrus was right there to report to me that she was awake.

The boys are having a hard time with her name. They keep saying Emma. Maya hasn't had that problem.

We chose her name when we decided we needed to name her after Elizabeth in the Bible. But Elizabeth was too long. We decided on Ella as a shortened version, but then we also loved Bettina, the Spanish version of Elizabeth. We decided to combine them and go ahead and give her two middle names, Bettina and her Chinese name, XiaoFeng.

Robert and I are exhausted but thrilled. Ella is also tired and a little sick, but she continues to be very interested in everything around her. We also discovered that she LOVES Cheerios, one at a time, put in her mouth for her (already a little princess!).

There is more, I'm sure, but it is time to end this and take care of my little girl.

Love to you all,
Stephanie