Monday, May 19, 2008

Gotcha!



In adoption lingo, today was our "Gotcha Day" and it was amazing! Only God can work the wonders that happened today!

We left for the orphanage at about 3pm with our guide, Mr. Li. (Nothing else much interesting happened before that except walking around the island in the rain, which was cool too, though.) So, we got in his super cool car and drove about 15min to the Civil Affairs office. There were quite a few other families there (I'm pretty sure this is where all the children meet there families for this province.) After only about 5 minutes of anxious waiting, Mr. Li said "She is ready." We walked to a sectioned off room and there she was! The little girl whose face we had been waiting almost one year to see was standing right before us! She was so beautiful! Ms. Zhong, the orphanage director, was there along with another man from the orphanage. They talked and talked to Teddi in Chinese and then pointed to each one of us- "mama", "baba", "goh goh", "gei gei". My parents filled out some more paper work as we sat and played with Teddi. She was interested in the MagnaDoodle right away, it was a great icebreaker! Also, Ms. Zhong took out some snacks from Teddi's bag and told her to share them with all of us. It was so cute! She was hardly shy, and only cried for a couple minutes when it was time to leave. But those couple of minutes were heartbreaking and about all that we could take. As we walked away from Ms. Zhong (the only "mama" Teddi has ever known) she got scared and cried, not stopping until we got off the elevator and outside - which was actually pretty amazing. Some kids cry for hours uncontrollably, and some don't talk or play for days. We have been praying that God would prepare her heart, and indeed He did! She was ready to be a part of our family! I don't know what was more sad though, watching Teddi cry while my crying mom was trying to console her, or whatching Ms. Zhong cry while watching another one of her babies leave her arms forever. It was quite an emotional afternoon!

The rest of the evening has been great! We came back to the hotel, and Xiao Xiao played and talked and smiled, she even laughed - a lot! She is a constant bundle of energy! We went to dinner and she ate well. (We ate at Lucy's again for the sake of normalcy, but this time I had the sweet and sour chicken with rice - we're getting there.)
We just can't believe how wonderfully she is transitioning, but then again, how wonderful is the God who created her and brought us together?! Praise be to Him!



-Me and my sister- :)







1 comment:

Francisco Z Rodriguez said...

It is so wonderful the way everything is working out. I can't wait to meet your sister!