Gotcha Day!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a day - truly amazing. The resilience of children is truly amazing. Once we got through the paperwork at Chung Yi and talked with Billi's social workers regarding her care, they walked Billi in the room - she is so, so adorable. She was a little shy at first, but thank goodness for Ashton - after about five minutes they were chasing each other around the room and under the tables. After that they took Ashton and Billi out of the room and brought in the birthmother. Wow, what an emotional meeting. Billi's birthmother was very young, and very pretty and seemed shy and quiet. We shared gifts with each other and both ended up crying trying to explain what we brought. She was such a typical teenager on one hand, but she also new the enormity of the situation on the other, she really put up a brave front - much braver than mine, I cried from the moment she walked in until she left. We visited with her and the aunt that she lives with and Billi for a while until it was time to go. The birthmother quietly slipped away after some goodbyes and then we left the orphanage after some pictures. I do fee very happy that I have a photo album of Billi's birthmother that she gave me and we also took pictures with her, so Billi will have many pictures to look back on. Once we got back to the hotel - oh my goodness - this kid is a firecracker, I am talking every toy, book, crayon and Play-Do was left turned upside and down and sideways all over our room. She was running around, laughing, running, playing hide-and-seek, pretty much just having the time of her life. She is also a very smart girl, she repeats words right after we say them and is completely fascinated with the computer - we have a little techie on our hands. She also ran out of our room as there is no way to lock the door from the inside - she did about five times, one of them right after her bath without her clothes on! Needless to say, we will have to move the coffee table in front of the door so she doesn't try to slip out during the night! We have no idea what she is saying 99.9 percent of the time, but it is amazing how you can communicate when necessary. The night went really well, and we all had so much fun. The end of the night was difficult once she got tired - she had a pretty bad mourning period and cried for her ma-ma. This was very sad for us, but she fell asleep after about 10 minutes of this and is sleeping very hard now. Tomorrow is AIT bright and early in the morning, so off to bed before another big day tomorrow!