Wednesday,
December 17, 2008
GOTCHA DAY!
What a whirlwind of a day! We were told we “may” get our babies
today, but none of us expected that it would be immediately
following our arrival in Nanning. We flew out of Hong Kong at
2:30 pm and arrived in Nanning about an hour or so later. We met
our second guide of the trip after claiming our baggage and she
immediately told us that “we are going to get your babies right
now and then we’ll go from there to your next hotel”.
We were all floored, excited and scared! 45 minutes later we
were in an empty room of the Civil Affairs Office in the Lottery
Hotel when the doors opened up and a parade of nannies and
babies came in. It was complete chaos and honestly quite
upsetting. One of the children is 4 ½ and she screamed, cried
and fought to go back to her nanny. Her nanny exited quickly in
tears. Mike and I were sobbing watching this child and our
friends as they tried to calm her down. It was heart wrenching.
Next thing we know someone was yelling out “Gui Qiu – Gui Qiu”
and Lauren was thrusted into my arms. It was so quick Mike could
barely capture it on video. Lauren screamed and cried – Mike and
I cried some more. As quickly as they introduced these children
to us, we were ushered out and back into the bus to go to our
hotel. Lauren screamed & cried the whole way to the hotel and
then for another hour or so after arrival. We gave her a sponge
bath, changed her wet diaper & put her in clean clothes but she
was still pretty upset and would push our hands away & try to
avert eye contact with both of us. She felt a little warm, & is
clearly cutting new teeth, so we gave her some baby Motrin. I
hope she feels much better in the morning.
One thing I need to say is “thank GOD for stacking cups”! I sat
Lauren down on the bed with the stacking cups and some other
toys and then…finally it came….the silence. She busied herself
for a good hour or more with those little cups (thank you Aunt
Leah & Uncle Steve!). Pat, Ellie & Tess came down to visit &
share some rice cereal with Lauren but she wouldn’t take that or
a bottle either. We tried a teething biscuit & some puffs but
she just turned away from it all. The poor baby has got to be
hungry but is stubborn and is not too happy being left with us
today.
Like a switch was hit, Lauren just leaned over & fell asleep
around 8:30 tonight. She stirred a little when I scooper her up
to put her in her crib, but then went right back to sleep. My
poor angel is exhausted.
Please remember us in your prayers, please ask God to help
Lauren & all of these children as they go thru this life
altering change. Please pray that Mike and I make the right
choices in helping Lauren do so. There’s no way of explaining
the emotions that Mike and I have been thru today. We’ve been
waiting for this day for so long. Here it is and it is hard.
It’s amazing how much love we felt for her from the moment we
saw her picture…but when she was first put in my arms it was
like an explosion of emotions I could never put into words.
Seeing Lauren grieving hurts my heart so much, I wish I knew
what to do or give her to make it all better.
It is nearing midnight and it’s been a really long day. I hope
you all like the pictures of our beautiful little angel;
hopefully we’ll be able to send one with a “smile” soon! Please
keep the guestbook comments coming, we LOVE reading them!
- Denice
Mike here: Well all I can say is… what in the world just
happened?! As I write this I am actually looking at my daughter
sleeping peacefully; something that I have dreamt of for years.
She never had a face until now. It is not easy to describe what
emotions are running through my head, but here’s two:
overwhelmed and scared, but it’s a good scared. I do not know
what else I can say, plus Denice needs to get this update done
before we retire for the evening. Love you all. - Lauren’s Dad |
The farmland of Nanning
Gotcha! Finally a family of three...GOD IS GOOD!
Leaving for our hotel
Letting Daddy sit close by (baby steps!)
Playing contently.
Too much excitement - she's OUT! |
