Gotcha Day!

October 12, 2015

We were hoping and praying that our bags would arrive at the airport last night as told on the Delta website.  Our guide Jerry picked Randy up at 9:30 and they went to the airport to see if they were on the designated flight.  Nope.  No bags.  We crashed and then resumed making phone calls this morning to see what we could find out.  So far either people don't answer their phones or they don't have a clue where to start looking for the missing bags.  Our assumption is that they are still in Beijing or they are sitting in a room here in Guiyang and we just haven't gotten to the right person that knows it!  (As most of know from my last FB post our bags were found in Beijing and should be on a plane an coming to us now!)

We ran into anther adopting family (different agency) this morning at breakfast and they offered to share clothes (I have a clean shirt to wear thanks to them) and gave us some pull-ups for Zeke.  The generosity of others warms our hearts!

Today was the BIG day!  Our guide, Jerry, picked us up at 9:30 and we made our way to the Civil Affairs Adoption office.  We weren't sure exactly what to expect but were praying we would get to meet Isaiah's foster parents during the process.  They actually beat us there!  Unlike Zeke's adoption, we were the only family in the room when we met Isaiah.  It was a much more personal experience. (There were about 15 families in the room on Zeke's Gotcha Day.)  We were able to watch Isaiah interact with his foster parents and ask specific questions about his schedule, routines, and habits.  You could tell that they loved our little boy well.

Initially Isaiah didn't want anything to do with us.  We were expecting this.  Since we didn't have his special backpack with toys just for him Zeke made his first big brother sacrifice (with a little convincing) and shared some of his toys with Isaiah.  We have another car lover!  Isaiah was also very interested in daddy's camera and all of the buttons there were to push.  He enjoyed looking at pictures of himself and his foster parents.  While he was doing this they quietly left the room.  It took awhile for him to realize they were gone and when he did we had a very distraught little boy on our hands.  He wailed, cried and repeated "Ba-Ba" over and over.  He was obviously VERY attached to his foster dad/grandpa.  This bodes well for his family skills with us but shows the power of his grief at the same time.

We completed the necessary paperwork amidst his wails and then went back to the hotel.  Our evening was a cycle of quiet and sadness.  You could see his little mind trying to process what had just happened and not quite being able to make it all make sense.  It was a joyous day for us as we have a second little boy to call our own but a tragic day for Isaiah because he lost the only family he has ever known.



Brothers:




Family Picture: 

L to R: Sam, Baba, Mama, Isaiah, Mommy, Daddy & Zeke

We were blessed to be able to meet Sam at our Gotcha Day meeting.  He found out Isaiah was being adopted and asked if he could come and meet his new family.  Sam and his wife are Americans who are part of the foster care network in Guiyang.  They initially helped run the network but now host medically fragile foster children until they are healthy enough to be placed with Chinese foster parents.  Isaiah lived with Sam and his wife until he was roughly 6 months old.  At that time he was placed with the "grandparents" pictured.  The amazing thing about meeting Sam?  He has baby pictures of Isaiah!  He will be sending them to us soon.  It is rare to get baby pictures of an internationally adopted child.  We are very excited to have this piece of Isaiah's history!