Our Forever Family Day (aka Gotcha Day)

How do you start a post about the most amazing day of your life? Well, I need to say that is this amazing day #4 in my life. First one being the day that Wayne and I got married. Second one being the day that Cameron Thomas was born. Third day being the day that Anna Elizabeth came into our lives. Now, here we are thousands miles away from everything we know and we have found the perfect match to our family again.

We met our guide Rosslyn at the airport and she then she took us to our hotel. It was about a 45 minute drive from the airport to our hotel. We are staying at the Mayflower Best Western in Wuhan. She informed us that she had made 4:00pm appointment for us to get the babies. OH MY GOODNESS!! It’s really happening!! I, of course went into panic mode. Do we have diapers? Do we have sippy cups and water? What about snacks? We managed to get all of paperwork together and meet Rosslyn in the lobby of the hotel.

It was about a 15 minute drive to the civil affairs building which in under construction, so there is bamboo scaffolding all over the front of the building. As we pulled up we saw 2 little ones dressed in matching outfits. We knew right away it was Julia and Isaac. Julia was in a red coat and Isaac in a matching blue one. Liz and I both started to cry. I can’t even tell you the words to describe the feeling. We jumped out of the van and followed the kids inside. They had been brought by 2 orphanage workers. Here in Hubei we are not allowed to meet the foster moms. What a huge disappointment. However, I do understand why that law is in place. It would make it much harder for Julia to see her foster mom again.

We had time to ask questions of the workers. What was Julia called? How did they calm her? What does she like to eat? I was overwhelmed and really didn’t ask many questions. We do know that she was raised with an older sister who is 10. I’m sure she is going to love Cameron and Anna. Julia knew right away from the pictures that Cameron was Ge Ge (older brother) and Anna was Jie Jie (older sister).

We received a photo album of Julia from the orphanage. There are some pictures that we had never seen before. There are even some of her recent 2nd birthday! She looks so well cared for in the foster mother’s home. We also received a bag of goodies from the orphanage that contained snacks, formula, and juice. We know that Director Lu loves his babies.

It is now time for us to leave the civil affairs. Isaac begins to cry and Julia seems to be a bit confused but doesn’t cry. We need to stop and buy formula and bottles. Isaac continues to cry as Brion heads out of the van with Wayne and Rosalyn. After a few moments, Julia begins to cry and they are now at full strength. This goes on until we reach the hotel. Both start and stop crying as we reach the elevators. Brion and Liz head to their room and we come to ours.
Julia finds many more toys and snacks in the room and loves it. She did very good!! Laughing, drinking a bottle, she seemed fine. All of the sudden she starts the potty dance and we need to get the toilet. I didn’t get her layers and layers of clothes off in time, so we had an accident. I decided that she needed a bath anyways, so we started a tubby. She loved the bath!!!! She was in the tub till she was a little prune. Wayne took pictures and video of her having a good time!
After the tub, she got out and just played with us like she had known us forever. It was a very magical moment. Until...she realized that it was time for bed and she wasn’t headed back to her foster mom. She cried and cried, asking for the same person over and over again. It was heartbreaking. She did not let me comfort her, she wanted Wayne (YES!!!). This is wonderful! After nearly an hour of crying and fussing she finally settled and went to sleep. And as of a matter of fact, she is STILL sleeping at this moment. YAY!! We only hope that today goes smoothly as well.

We have to meet with the officials again today. We hope to meet Director Lu. We have heard some great things about him, so we look forward to meeting him. I need to get ready for breakfast, so take care all and I will try to get more pictures up later today!!