The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

I know you are all dying to hear if we got Evan today. The simple answer is "no"! But, the day was so full of emotional ups and downs it's amazing I'm still functioning! We were told this morning that we would not be receiving Evan today. Well, we had been expecting that so we were "okay" with it. As we were heading out to our 3 hour flight to Nanning, our agency director told us Evan would be at the civil affairs office today and that even if we didn't get to bring him back to the hotel with us, we would get to at least visit with him. Okay, I could definitely handle that. Caleb and Chris were excited over the chance to see Evan in person. So, off we go on our flight...unbearable flight, but at least we made it to Nanning safe and sound. We arrived at the hotel with 10 minutes to get ready to go meet the children. I got little Evan's backpack ready - it has some coloring, stickers, play animals, magna doodle, etc.. and off we went to the bus. The anticipation in the bus was amazing...all the families were just in shock that the moment was finally coming for them to meet their children. On the bus, Chris and I were told we would most likely get to take Evan back with us today! We were so excited. We prepped Caleb on how to use the video on the camera and I started to cry (naturally). We were all ushered up to Floor #4 and we could hear the children talking and playing in a room right across the hall!!!! We knew our Evan was in there. Some of the kids kept peeking around the corner as we were waiting but not Evan.

Just before the children were brought in to meet their parents, our agency director came in and told Chris and I that our paperwork wasn't ready and we would NOT be getting Evan. Even worse, we were not allowed to see him either! Oh my goodness....I wasn't prepared for that news at all. She ushered us out of that room and we had to go in a room by ourselves while the other children were brought in to meet their new mommies and daddies.

I had a good cry and then Chris and I just sucked it up and thought, well....we know he's real, he's safe and he will be ours very soon! Our agency director was amazing and she offered to get some video of Evan playing in the room. So, we do have some cute videos of him from today and we are watching them over and over and marveling at how absolutely adorable and perfect he is!!! He seems so happy and outgoing - he was sticking his tongue out, pretending to be superman and giving the "peace" sign. He told our director he was waiting for his mama and baba and that he was going to Canada. How sweet is that?!!

We are praying that all goes well and we will get Evan tomorrow morning around 9:00 am.

So...all the other families came back to the hotel and ate but we decided to enjoy our last "Evan-less" night and went to Walmart to buy him some dinosaurs (he told our director they were his favorite toy!), we walked around a bit (Nanning is beautiful!) and then we went swimming in the amazing hotel pool.

So, all in all....we are still upbeat about getting Evan tomorrow and we feel good to see him talking about meeting us and knowing we are waiting for him!

Here are some pictures from today...

Caleb BEGGED us to let him eat these for supper! Hee hee (chicken feet - Dylan what do you think of these????)

Caleb and Mom enjoying the night lights in Nanning

Caleb on SKYPE talking with Dylan. We are having so much fun with Skype and being able to see and hear everyone

Dad and Caleb at KFC

Dad and Caleb on the bus as we headed out to the airport