6 August 2007

Travel Day 6 — Gotcha Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Posted by BaBa under: Travel .

I could put all of the pictures at the bottom to make you read the post first, but I will put some at the top and the rest at the bottom to improve your reading pleasure.

Today we woke up early again. Of course that was natural as today is the day we have been working toward for over a year. It is the day where we will be united with our new son. So much paperwork, so many strange twists, so many friends met on the journey and so much hope all culminating into today.

The day started with the normal breakfast at the hotel (kind of bland here) and talking to Ralph and Jim. We then got our stuff together and came down to meet our group in the lobby before 10:00am. We had a few minutes for pictures on the staircase.

Soon, we were on the coach and off for a 15 minute ride to the civil affairs building. This is a kind of surreal day. One of those days you have dreamed of all your life.

I remember the song from Yentl with Barbara Streisand. There are moments you remember all your life.

There are moments you remember all your life.
There are moments you wait for and dream,
Of all your life.
This is one of those moments.
I will always remember this chair,
that window, the way the light streams in.
The clothes I’m wearing,
The words I’m hearing,
The face I’m seeing,
The feeling I’m feeling,
The smell, the sounds, will be written
On my mind, will be written in my heart
As long as I live!

. . . There are moments you remember all your life.
There are moments you wait for
And dream, of all your life.
This is one of those moments!

Truly this is one of the moments. We arrive at the civil affairs office and he is seated on the bench with Grant, Mary Audrey, a nanny and Coco. Coco tells him there is MaMa and BaBa. He is uncertain. MaMa gets him and peace lasts for less than two minutes. He soon melts down and melts down in a large way. He has the lungs of an Elephant and can trumpet his displeasure. He is also as strong as an Ox and throws his head back. It is easy to see that he is (to continue to use the animal analogies) healthy as a horse. The meltdown gets louder and louder and continues for more than 30 minutes.

MaMa and I take turns holding him and attempting to comfort him, but it quickly became obvious to me that I would need to roll with the punches and to let him exhaust himself. And so it went. His nanny tried to comfort him, but she was crying, he was crying, and MaMa was crying. In fact she was doing him more harm than good as this continued to upset him. She left and this did seem to help slightly. We found out from Coco that he was a favored child at the orphanage and was loved by all of the nannies. In fact, he had two nannies that were his favorites. He is used to being held and played with according to the report. Coco gave us all of the items we had sent for him and a thick collection of papers with photos over time and details of his life. We will have to get this translated once we get home, but what a priceless treasure.

He finally started settling down after I walked him around and he was nearly spent. The family photo we had to have made must be dreadful as he was still raging. It was only after this photo that he began to settle down and it was time to leave. I am happy to report that once the meltdown was over, he went with us without a fuss to the coach and sat next to me with my around him back to the hotel. He was a little fussy when we got to the room as we did give him a bath. He was dripping wet with sweat from him crying and meltdown. I dried him off and he again settled down. We changed his clothes and he was doing much better.

The rest of the day, our son’s wonderful inquisitive personality began to break through. He needed some yogurt milk (drank two containers) and a nap. After the nap, he had cheerios (took a while to try them) and learned over the course of an hour how to open and close the container. He went with us down to fill out the adoption paperwork with Min and MaMa took him to see the Koi fish in the lobby which he thought was fascinating. It was time for a diaper change and to start to reluctantly show a smile (ever so slight). Later in the evening, we went to Burger King for dinner and he walked with us holding both hands. He is a large kid compared to the others in the group especially the 3+ year old guy. He is healthy and his wrist really does not impact his grip or dexterity. We are so thrilled and pleased to be his parents and that he is a bright, inquisitive child. All I can end with is

Thanks be to God ! ! ! Good night from Nanjing and our newly expanded family.

Here are the rest of the Gotcha Day Pictures.

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