Thursday,
January 11, 2007
GOTCHA DAY!
The bus taking us to the adoption office didn’t leave until 3:30
p.m., so the wait prior seemed a lot like the wait on referral
day.
We both had a good cry in the morning. All the bottled up
feelings regarding this journey finally came out. I saw the
gorgeous, soft, pink blankets that Michelle laid out for Chloe,
and I realized that she had thought to bring them all this way
for her. It just reminded me how long we had waited for this
day, how far we had come, and how much we had to bring.
At the adoption office, things happened very fast. Our Chinese
tour guide speaks excellent English, but she doesn’t mince
words. She walked into our room and said to everyone, “Now we
bring in the babies.”
Because of Chloe’s smiling referral photos, we were hoping for a
smiling “Gotcha”. It turned out that she wasn’t smiling or
crying; she was sound asleep! Their bus trip to us was five hours long, and they were just exhausted.
She slept most of the day, but she was partly trying to make
herself sleep or keep her eyes closed because she was so scared.
All three of us were scared. We realized how traumatic this was
for her and all the other babies. Her referral was very
accurate: She is gentle, beautiful, a deep sleeper, and has big,
dark, deep eyes that stare right through you.
She was just so scared most of the day, but she hardly cried.
She has four teeth and sucks her thumb almost constantly. When
she is really nervous, she sucks her left thumb and tugs on her
right ear. She didn’t want her bottle, so the three of us just
collapsed onto one full-size bed without eating dinner and slept
there all night. |
Gotcha Day Morning
The Moment
Gotcha! |
