We have our daughter!!!!!

So today (Friday) was the day that we left the hotel and went to the place that we will be staying for the rest of our time in Chennai. It is a beautiful flat that my friend arranged through his good friends here in India. We end up calling the director of the orphanage to coordinate when we would visit our girl tomorrow. She informs us that we can come today, and she would go with us the first time. Then we could go back tomorrow by ourselves, since it is a government holiday tomorrow (and the Prime Minister is visiting tomorrow, so streets would be slow due to security). Then we could visit again on Sunday or Monday, and on Monday the director would release the girl and her traveling documents to us. This would give Maddy time to get used to us.

So we go to the directors office, meet her, then we all go to the orphanage. Words can't express what we felt when we saw our daughter (and sister) for the first time face to face. She actually allowed Debbie to hold her while her caretaker was there, although she was really holding in her emotions. They finally came out and she started crying (her little voice is so cute) although there were no tears, just crying and sniffling. She didn't want me to hold her, but eventually let Debbie hold her. We gave her some M&M's which she liked. The caretaker left us alone with her for about an hour, and during that time the turning point came when Sammy gave her a bright blue caribiner that he had. She held onto that thing for dear life, but really warmed up to Sammy and all of us. So then the director tells us that rather than go through this drama again tomorrow (her crying and getting used to us), would we like to just take her right now? OF COURSE WE WOULD!!! So we were able to take her back home, where we will spend the next couple of days with her, then on Monday, the director will issue her travel documents to us. On Tuesday morning we will be flying to New Delhi to arrange for her medical checkup and immigration visa at the Embassy.

She really loves Debbie, she likes Sammy and lets him walk her around holding her hand, and she tolerates me (Vic). At one point I had her so she was used to letting me hold her. By bedtime, she really wanted only Debbie, and when Debbie left the room she started crying. Sammy didn't want to leave her alone for one second, he loves her so much. We all do. The caretaker was clearly emotional about seeing her go, and gave us gifts that her church had gathered for us. She also told us that she would alwasy say with Maddy "Thank you Jesus", and she didn't want her to forget that. We gave a giant suitcase full of donations to them, and they were really grateful (thank you to all who helped!).

So later today I will try to post pictures, which takes forever (thus the text update this time, that is a lot quicker). Today we will try to visit the St. Thomas mound, where he was killed, and the St. Thomas Basilica, which is where he was buried.

The food is definitely spicy, but Sammy is doing much better with it. He is a trooper, and plus he's half me, so his latent superpower of loving really spicy food might be slowly coming to the surface.

Our flat is gorgeous, on the third floor of a building and right on the water. There is AC, and a guy named Mr. Vincent who is here with us to help us with everything from getting food to getting around town. Sammy thinks he is really cool.

More to come later!