Day 5: Gotcha!

Today is Labor Day, September 1st.  On this day, with our labor of love, we get to have and to hold our newest son. 

We started off the morning with an AMAZING buffet.  Wow, was the food good.  The food at our last hotel was really good to, but I am really impressed with the quality and variety of the food here.  We have been eating some food we are used to and continue to try a few new things at all meals.  They have locus roots, which taste like yams, green duck eggs, which taste similar to regular eggs, noodles with vegetables like we have back home at Chinese food restaurants, congee, which is kind of like grits, mooncakes which are pastries filled with a creamy fruit/ nougat, soups, etc. to name a few. 

At 9:30 we met Vivian in the lobby.  CCAI’s van drove us to meet our son.  I thought we were going to have to be interviewed as part of the process, and I have seen many families’ pictures over the past few months who have had to wait and watch as dozens of other families meet their child while they wait.  We had to watch videos of horror gotcha days to prepare ourselves, so I knew there was a chance that Christian would not only want nothing to do with us, but could be horrified to go with us.  We smell different, look different, eat different, talk different, dress different, and are just different in general from anything he is used to at his orphanage.  You know how people say to prepare for the worst and hope for the best?  Well, we got the best. Our experience was magical.  We have it on video, but didn’t get any pictures.  I forget things easily, but this day is not one I will forget. 

We were the ONLY family there, and Vivian had prepared us that some families have to wait up to two hours in the lobby before their child arrives by train, but when we got there he was calmly taking a bottle from the orphanage director on a bench.  He looked at us and was very serious as he took everything in.  When they handed him to Adam he just looked at him.  He stared.  He analyzed.  He smiled.  He never cried that whole visit.  The space has a play area for kids, so while one of us did paperwork the other one played with him.  He had so much fun, but I can promise you not as much fun as we had! He loved riding the little riding car toy, playing on the slide, and checking out some fun little toys I brought him in his very own backpack.  There was no interview and all that stress and worry ended up making me just appreciate this morning that much more.  I knew how blessed we were to have things go so well. 

About twenty minutes into our time there another family entered the room and a minute later their new little boy.  It was fun to watch, but I had a hard time peeling my eyes off Christian.  The lady who brought him gave us a duck backpack with a few things for him.  Two disposable cameras we had sent him in our first care package – I can’t wait to see the pictures on there!  There was also a few diapers, 2/3 of a bag of formula, a little necklace with Chinese characters saying, “blessings” and that was it.  I am assuming he never got the second care package we sent him because nothing was included from that box – another disposable camera and a recordable book that Adam and I read.  I had also sent a jump drive, but that was not returned. 

We were finished there around 11:00 and when we got to our room we decided to order room service and keep the day really low key.  We ended up ordering room service for both lunch and dinner.  It was a really nice day.  We started our play by showing him a drawer we had filled with toys from home.  When we opened the drawer I handed him one item at a time and then he walked that item over to Adam.  Adam practiced his Chinese for saying thank you (sounds like Shay Shay).  We have played this game numerous times over the past few days J  Christian especially loved a glowing plastic ball on the end of a stick.  He played with this for most of our ride back to the hotel and throughout the day.  He also really enjoyed small stickers.  He helped take off a little sticker, handed it to Adam or I, then we put it on whatever part of his body he pointed to – usually either of the backs of his hands. 

The morning/ early afternoon went beautifully.  He fell asleep taking a bottle and we laid him down for a nap.  He slept a full two hours and then when he woke up the poor thing became a bit of a mess.  He was scared.  He was calling and crying for his “mama,” who was not me.  He didn’t want either of us but tolerated sitting in my lap and crying.  He held onto his juice in my lap and once he seemed calm and content, about an hour later, Adam and I thought it would be a good idea to take him swimming.  We had read in his file that he LOVED water, so we thought this would be a good way to help him have fun again.  He wasn’t happy to put on his swim trunks, but only a few tears later we walked into the pool room.  Adam got in the water and I handed him Christian… but then he started REALLY crying.  We tried to make it fun, but after about two minutes decided to bring him back to the room.  People were staring and he wasn’t liking it anymore.  After that the rest of the day was pretty quiet and we played pretty low key.  I would have loved to rock and coddle our little man to sleep, but Adam was thinking big picture and wanted to have him lay down in his crib and go to sleep on his own.  This is how he went to bed all of his life and it is how we would like for him to continue going to bed when we get home and start our new routine.  So, we laid him down after rocking him, cuddles, and songs, and he cried pretty hard for about three minutes.  Only another minute or so of sniffles later and he was out cold for the night.  He snuggled with the mini blanket I made him, which made me feel good.