Today we met our daughter!

What a day it has been!  We were picked up at our hotel at 10:30 by our driver.  He is a nice fellow that speaks English fairly well.  He took us to the Ministry of Education where we met our coordinator (she lives here in St. Petersburg and works for our agency to handle the Russian side of our adoption),  At the MOE, we were brought in to an office where a woman told us about our little miss, gave us some basic background information, and said we could now go meet her!  Woohoo!  Not so fast.  Next we had to stop at another municipality within the region to get permission to visit her.  Again, they approved the visit so NOW we are off to the baby home.  Woohoo!!
We arrived at the baby home.  As soon as we entered we put on blue plastic booties over our shoes.  We were waiting in the hallway - I thought we were waiting for the director.  Next thing I notice a young woman coming around the corner holding a toddler's hand.  The baby looked up and it was our girl!!  Our coordinator said "Let's go!" and we followed them down the hall, up the stairs to a tiny room.  They left her with the 3 of us.  She is absolutely beautiful!  I think Bill & I were both in shock at first.  We started pulling out toys, our coordinator spoke to her in Russian while showing her the toys.  She took to them immediately.  She seemed quite comfortable with both of us.  We were pleased to see this because it is very common for the children to be distant with men because they never see them.  All of their caregivers are women.  But this was not the case for our girl.  At one point, Bill was holding her and he lifted her up in the air.  She giggled so loudly.  It was music to my ears!
The doctor that we hired to check her arrived.  She had already read all of her medical charts.  She examined her while I held her and she cried.  My heart broke.  The great news is we received an excellent report!  The doctor was extremely nice and helpful.  I am thankful we made the decision to have her come.  She made us more comfortable with everything.  After about 2 hours, little miss seemed to be getting tired.  Our coordinator took her back to her caregivers.
We signed our intent to adopt her today.  We never thought we would be making this decision on the first day but it just felt right.  After excellent reports from 2 doctors and a fantastic visit, we knew this little girl is our daughter.
It was a wonderful day that we will never forget.  What a relief after so much waiting and worry.  We are looking forward to seing her again tomorrow!