Gotcha Day!

JULY 20TH- GOTCHA DAY!

How do you express in words the excitement and anticipation you feel on the day you finally get to meet your son?!  I've dreamt about this day for over 2 years.  There is so much that we have had to do to become a family, mountains of paperwork, waiting, doctors visits, fingerprinting, waiting, psychological evaluation, more paperwork, parenting classes, waiting, more paperwork, more classes, waiting, waiting, waiting and MORE waiting...and the day has finally come to be able to hold my son in my arms.  

When we arrived last night, were told that sometime in the morning our son would be brought to us, but we weren't told what time or any other details.  So Saturday morning we wake up, get showered and dressed and wait...not really sure if someone will call us to let us know they are on their way or if someone will just show up at our door. Our room is really small, so I try my best to set some toys out to try to make the place look appealing to a 19 month old.  

All of the sudden, I look out the window and there are 2 ladies walking up to our room holding a little boy.  I turn to Dean and say, 'I think they are here!'. We both open the door and are greeted by the 2 women and our son.  Unfortunately, neither of the women spoke English. We could tell one of the women was our son's foster mother but we weren't sure who the other woman was.  We motioned to go to the gazebo in the small courtyard outside of our room, since our room was so small there wasn't anywhere for all of us to sit. We gathered under the gazebo and the foster mom handed our son, Kade (the name we are giving him), to me.  Kade was very apprehensive and not happy to come to me, you could tell he was scared and didn't know what was going on.  We sat down under the gazebo and tried engaging him with some Cheerios and some toys.  Since neither woman spoke English we weren't able to ask any questions or make small talk, it was actually a bit awkward.
What was so special is that Kade showed up in one of the shirts I had sent him in one of the recent care packages.  He also had one of the mini photo albums we had sent him with pictures of us, his room and our dogs.

Kade with his foster mom

Seeing Kade for the first time was incredible.  God picked the perfect child for us.  He was even more beautiful, rather, handsome than any of his pictures.  His eyelashes are to die for.  His eyes are the color of milk chocolate.  Holding Kade for the first time was magical.  My arms engulfed him, my heart melted.  This is really happening, I'm holding my son in my arms!  I'm not very good with words, so I don't know how to express what exactly I was feeling but it was warm and my heart was full of love.
The women stayed for about a half an hour before leaving.  I made sure we got a photo with them, even though we weren't able to communicate with one another audibly, they knew how grateful we were for what they had done for our son.

Foster Mom, Kade, Me and Natasha (who we found out later was with our attorney's office)

After the women left, Kade was understandably upset.  My heart was breaking for him.  He didn't understand what was happening, why these 2 people who looked different, spoke different, smelled different, etc were now holding him while the people he knew walked away.  I tried my best to hold him closely to comfort him and soothe him.  He cried for a long while until eventually crying himself to sleep.

  

Once Kade woke up, he was ok.  He didn't cry and actually wanted us to hold him and comfort him.  We took a little walk around the 'compound' (what we called it since we were basically stuck behind 12 foot walls with razor wire).  Later in the afternoon 'E' came by, who works for the attorney's office to check on us.  We explained to him that we were not able to communicate with the women about Kade to find out what he eats, when he sleeps, what soothes him, etc.  'E' called the foster mom to ask these questions and then went with Dean to the market to pick up some baby supplies.  

Kade with 'E'.  'E' became a very good friend that we plan on keeping in touch with as Kade grows up.

We fixed lunch in our room and brought it out to the gazebo area to eat and then play the rest of the afternoon.  He was starting to warm up to us, we were starting to win him over, even though he had won our hearts over the day we received his referral picture over a year ago.  

You can start to see his personality coming out and that he is warming up to us

Good night little man!  What an awesome first day with your Forever Family!