Gotcha Day!

Today was the day we have been waiting for and working toward for the past year – Jack’s Gotcha Day.  Hurray!  Things have gone very smoothly and there isn’t a thing about it that could have been easier.  Well, maybe getting Jack to close his eyes and finally succumb to sleep could have gone a bitter faster, but if that is the only challenge of the day (and I find it incredibly inaccurate to even call that a challenge) than I’ve got absolutely nothing to complain about.

This morning started out at a leisurely pace here in room 320 as we did not need to meet our group until 9:30.  That allowed me to wake up, organize my suitcases a bit, double check my envelope of paperwork, work with my pictures/computer and Skype with Dan all before heading down to breakfast.  Then, after breakfast Katie and I gathered up our cameras and traveling gear and headed to the lobby to meet the group and head out for our "babies".

We arrived at the Adoption Registration Office just before ten o’clock.  On the way, our guide, Yisha, explained that each of the orphanages would bring their children between ten and eleven o’clock.  There are eight families in our group with children coming from six different orphanages and since all of the orphanages were given the same time frame for delivery there was no way to know which children would arrive first or who would arrive in which order.  Basically we would just go in, see if anyone was there yet, and simply wait for the children to arrive.

When we first got to the Registry Office there was one child already present.  This was a little girl being adopted by a family not part of our actual travel group but coming along with us today since we were all going the same place at the same time.  The second child, another little girl, arrived soon after.  The rest of the children arrived slowly with anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes in between.  Jack and another little boy from his orphanage, also named Jack ironically, were the last two children to arrive.  I recognized him right away and was surprised to see him wearing a shirt that we had mailed him months earlier.

When Jack entered the building our guide’s assistant, Rita, directed him in my direction.  Rita got down low and pointed to me telling Jack that I was “mama.”  He hesitated perhaps a split second and then walked over to me and leaned against my side and shoulder.  The woman accompanying Jack (his nanny I assume) came over as well and handed me the items Jack had brought with him – a disposable camera we had sent in one of his care packages and a few small tubes of medication for his skin.  Jack also had a photo album that we had sent him back at Christmas time in his possession, but he was clutching this in his hand and wasn’t about to let it go.  I was happy to see the photo album was quite worn and had obviously been looked at many times.  In addition, once the nanny finished explaining the medication details to me Jack began to look through the album with us, stopping to look at each page.  As much as this simply melted my heart, I think my favorite part of those early moments was hearing him say the word “mama” himself while leaning against me as if he knew exactly who I was.

Well, after playing on the floor a bit with a small car and motorcycle that I had brought with me – oh, and getting started on his Tootsie Pop – I decided it was probably best to move out of the middle of the doorway so we headed over to a bench on the far side of the room.  There I introduced Jack to my Mary Poppins like backpack as I continued to produce fun things to do/play with – one item being Stanley who was an immediate hit.  We stayed there on the bench for quite a while until it was my turn to sign the required guardianship papers and then have our first family photo taken.   After this Jack had the opportunity to play a bit in the “toy area” of the room which he seemed to enjoy quite a bit so I let him stay there until it was time to go.

Once all of the families had their paperwork signed and family photos taken it was time to head back to the bus.  I was a little surprised at how willing Jack was to leave the building with us, but when I asked him if he wanted to ride on a bus I was able to get a thumbs up so I took that as a good sign.  From there it was back to the hotel where we quickly filled up an empty tummy with some peanut butter, crackers, and pretzels, and then Skyped with Dan.  I tried to get him to nap and he willingly laid down on the bed, but there was no way he was going to go to sleep.  I took a few minutes to lay down with him and he was willing enough to rest his head and remain quiet but he certainly was not willing to relax enough to let himself fall asleep.

Around two thirty we finally decided it was time to catch a quick bite to eat before I headed upstairs to fill out more paperwork.  This time it was the bulk of the adoption paperwork which we will submit tomorrow when we return to the Registration Office.  One of the fun parts of this was letting Jack sign the papers as well by stamping his entire hand print in red ink.  What kid wouldn’t enjoy that?  And that about sums up our day.   

We spent the remaining few hours just hanging out in our room where Jack watched gymnastics on tv, colored – sort of, took a bath, smiled a lot when putting on his new puppy pajamas, and snuggled on my lap while I uploaded a ton of pictures to facebook.  Like I said, things have gone very smoothly.  It wasn’t until almost 9 o’clock that he finally allowed his eyes to close and his body to go to sleep, but that is okay too.  Katie and I both suspect that some of the resistance to sleep was simply a concern that he would wake up in the morning and all of this would be gone.  What a wonderful feeling to know that come sunrise Jack will find himself right where he was tonight.  =)

All in all, I couldn’t be more pleased with how things went today.  I am completely amazed at how much English Jack understands and how responsive he has been to both Katie and I.  He doesn’t want to go anywhere unless I am holding his hand, which I consider a great victory already.  And, like I said, his comprehension of English is astounding.  While we were at the Registration Office I told him that we needed to go across the room to have our picture taken and before I knew it he had taken my hand and was pulling me over to the picture spot.  When we got there another family was already taking their picture so we had to wait, but as soon as Yisha said the words, “Who’s next?” Jack was pulling me along again heading for our turn.  It was very funny, and quite amazing.  I’ve had the same experience with several body parts as he obviously knows the words for hands, teeth and even tongue.   He can answer appropriately when I ask if he is hungry or thirsty, needs more, or even needs to the use the restroom.  I expected that he might know simple things like colors, as I know he directly worked on these things at Maria’s, but it has been far easier to communicate with him even here on the first day than I ever imagined.

We are truly blessed by the wonderful care Jack has been provided up to this point.  And although I am very grateful for the care he has received over the last eight months at the state run orphanage, I truly believe it is because of the fantastic care he was provided by New Hope in Beijing as well as at Maria’s Big House of Hope that our first day of transition has gone as smoothly as it has.  We will forever be in their debt and we will never be able to say thank you enough for preparing our son for a life of love in our family.

“Then the King will say to those on His right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’

“Then the righteous will answer Him, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You something to drink? When did we see You a stranger and invite You in, or needing clothes and clothe You? When did we see You sick or in prison and go to visit You?’

“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for Me.’"   Matthew 25:34-40