Gotcha Day - 3 years ago - Jan 19, 2015

GOTCHA DAY 1-19-2015

I prayed for this child and the Lord has granted me what I asked of Him.  1 Samuel 1:27

Today is the day.  As we look back to 3 years ago I can honestly say the we were totally focused on Nian. So many feelings were flowing through us.  We were excited, scared, sad, hopeful, joyous, nervous, and oh so READY...   The moment we had spent a year of paper chasing, preparing, celebrating and praying for was Finally here..

We slept good the night before, had breakfast and met our group down in the lobby for the bus ride to the Civil Service office.  It was nice to have another family, who were also first time parents, who's child was from our same orphanage.  I wonder what Nian was thinking when he took both of those long rides to and from the orphanage.  He was 2 1/2 hours away from us.  I hope he slept for most of it.  We had read about how children thrive and change so much one out of the orphanage and into a loving home and that is SO true.  Looking back on pictures we have of Nian when he was with his foster family, and the short period of time he was in the orphanage you can see a BIG difference.  We are truly truly blessed that he was able to be with a foster family.  I think it really helped him transition into our family life.

Here we go ready or not!

Here's a look back.......

My biggest fear for today was having my child walk in and not recognizing him.  I soon found out I had nothing to fear as our little guy came in the door he looked just like his photo but more wide eyed and afraid, my poor little guy.  We grabbed him into our arms and hugged as one we were now a family. Tears streaming down my face, and Joe’s, hey ya'll should have know that was coming I've been crying for months! lol.  Later I had another Dad tell us he was held it together with all the kids coming in until he saw my tears; they made him cry as well.  Nothing but love in that room for all of us, not only for our children but for the other parents as well.  Joe and I felt so blessed to have that kind of support. Sticky rice!

After we signed our guardianship papers we all headed back to the hotel for some time to bond and soak it all in. Later in the afternoon we headed over to a meeting room to fill out some additional paper, I told ya we'd have more to do in China.  This paperwork was for the passports and notary. We had to put our "seal' on our signature when we were with our thumb prints.

It was a very long day for all of us. We decided to get some take out and eat in the room.  Little guy also needed a bath. He's not a big fan of having his shoes taken off or getting his hair wet.  Come to find out his shoes were small, which made his feet sweat, which made them look like blistered white raisins. I thought he had blisters all over his towns but he had only a little blister on one of his big toes and the rest was just from them being wet.  The bath went as well as could be expected and we were off to play a bit more before heading to bed.  I don't think any of us realized how long of a night it was going to be.

That's just part of the grieving process and it will take a while to heal these wounds of his.  But we'll get there.  Slow and steady wins the race.

Today Nian is so far from that little boy who walked through those doors scared and unaware of what was going on. He has grown and changed so much in this last year. All of the kids in our travel family have!  We continue to thank God every day for our little boy. Especially on those few days where I find I'm pulling my hair out lol. 

Today he had a super fun field trip to a local gymnastic place and he LOVED it.  We of course went thru McDonalds for lunch and then we'll head out to Papa and Meme's to help with some de-decorating.  It's so great to see how much he has grown from that day 3 years ago. This kid continues to amaze us both, and I"m sure it's just the  beginning.

The Nian Look...   

First Smile that day 3 years ago...

A Ham then

Still a Ham...

"the look" hasn't changed in 3 years!

the High balance beam

catching some air