And there is peace in my heart.

Belane is wonderful. She is here and she is sweet and happy and loving and beautiful!

We waited outside this morning in front of the Hilton, where we were expecting to get picked up at 9:30 a.m. by Gail to be taken to AHOPE to get Belane. We were so jittery sitting outside. The weather is beautiful…sunny but cool in the shade and I couldn’t tell if it was the excitement or the cool breezes that were giving me goosebumps!

We sat for quite a while…today is the end of Ramadan and there were parades and big crowds making the traffic worse than usual (which says a lot).

As we waited we saw two other adoptive families coming and going from the hotel. One had twin baby boys (so cute!) and one had a sibling group of three who were just gorgeous. The one family sounded Australian and the other we weren’t sure.

We finally got picked up about 10 a.m., and headed on over to AHOPE. Josh, being Josh, knew where we were, remembered the names of places, where to turn, etc. I was grateful that Gail is so wonderful to chat with because it passed the time as we made our way through the traffic and helped calm my nerves.

As we pulled up to the bright blue gate, I couldn’t help but think about the last time we were there and how heart broken I was when we left, and I saw that blue gate through blurry-eyed tears.

As we got out of the car, we heard lots of little kid voices, but did not see anyone. We could tell from the voices that they were all inside. As I got around the front of the car, a little boy started heading out the door, and then…then Belane came running out the front door. She ran right to me with her arms up, and as I scooped her up she wrapped my arms around my neck and nestled her face into my shoulder.

I couldn’t have imagined a more perfect greeting and reunion.

Soon all of the kids had flooded out the front door and were surrounding us. I recognized lots of faces and quite a few of them were pleasantly surprised when I called them by their names. I kept holding and snuggling Belane. She smiled at Josh but was a little shy with him.

One of the nannies said something and Belane got down and all of the kids ran inside. There was movie on the television inside and Belane was up front with a few other kids…one of which was hugging and kissing her.

The other kids were all over us and all wanted to be picked up. When you did pick them up, they held their bodies up straight and “checked you out”…not like Belane who wrapped all around me.

I looked over at her and could see her eyes were full of tears. I worried she would be sad when we left and my heart ached for her…knowing how hard all the change and “newness” will be. I wanted to scoop her up, but I wanted to give her her space and let her take her time with us. But then Gail came over and said that she has found (from LOTS of experience) that it is often best on the first day to take the child quickly and spend time bonding, and then come back another day to visit and play. She said she thought Belane was sad because we were paying attention to other kids and she was worried we wouldn’t take her.

Well, sure enough…I got a few feet away and put my hands out to her and she came running back into my arms. The nannies asked her if she wanted to go bye-bye in the car with us and she nodded yes. She let me put her shoes on her, and we I told her to wave “Ciao!” to everyone, she waved emphatically and gave her first big smile.

We got in a cab, and Belane snuggled up against me with her face on my chest. Within a few moments she was sound asleep with her arms and legs wrapped around me. I rubbed her soft curls, felt the relaxed weight of her body against me, and it was truly heaven.