GOTCHA DAY!!!!!

The day has finally come!!!! Today was Gotcha Day!!! We are finally a forever family!!! We waited for the minutes to tick away today. We did not leave our hotel room until the time had come to leave. We left the hotel bound for Sosnovoborsk at about 4:30pm. The drive to Sosnovoborsk takes about an hour with heavy traffic. The baby home is located there. It is a relatively smaller community than Krasnoyarsk. Krasnoyarsk has about a population of 800,000 people, but Sosnovoborsk is probably about a tenth of that maybe....
When we arrived at the orphanage Alyssa was waiting for us in the music/playroom that we always visit with her in. The Director was there with her waiting for us. We had to take off all of her clothes and put on the ones that we had brought her. She seemed like she was really ready for us to take her home. Before leaving we took pictures with the Director and also pictures outside on the step before we left.
Alyssa did pretty well all in all on the trip back. However with it already dark outside she did not like the oncoming cars with their lights shining in her face. She would not sit still even in my lap. I finally decided to sing to her knowing that she loves music. I am soooo glad that I tried it.....It worked!!!! I had to sing Jingle Bells all that way back to Krasnoyarsk. About half way there she fell asleep in my arms. I continued singing though hoping that it would keep her calm. She did not get sick in the car and we are greatful for that!!! When we got back to the hotel we prepared her some food in the room, and she seemed to settle right in. We played with some of the toys we had brought from home and also some that we had bought at the toy store. We put her down for bed at about 10:00pm. She moved around and around in the crib for about 30 minutes but finally fell asleep. She is sleeping soundly as I am writing this post.
We are so excited to finally introduce you to our precious little girl that we call our "Little Russian Princess"!!!!
Please keep our new family in your prayers as Alyssa adjusts to a new life with her mommy and daddy!!!
Keep watching our blog and I will try to post daily about the rest of our journey home to the U.S.
Love...Julie, Wade & Alyssa