He's Here!

This has been one of the most difficult adoptions I have ever heard of. Even our agency director said she has never encountered the problems we've had with any other family (and she's done over 80 adoption trips with multiple families each!)

Today we left for the Civil Affairs Office believing we would receive Evan. That did not happen. We hoped and prayed we would finally get to meet him later in the day. We received a call at 4:56 pm that we could finally go and pick up Evan. Well, the three of us tour through the hotel room getting our stuff ready to take and were waiting anxiously outside when our guide arrived.

The "gotcha" moment was not like we imagined as things moved so quickly. We knew when we got to the Civil Affairs office we would be the only family there and Evan would already be there waiting for us. Sure enough, we went upstairs and went directly into the room where Evan was playing. He looked up at us and we just started saying "Ni Hao Jun Jun". I was smiling from ear to ear, Caleb was trying to videotape (didn't work out so well though) and Chris just didn't know what to do with himself. We couldn't believe we were actually seeing him in person - he looks just like his photos. He is tiny (I think he may even be tinier than Alyssa) and so adorable. His eyes are huge and serious. He kept looking at me but I could tell he didn't know what to think of me. When we first walked in the room and knelt down beside him he said "hello mommy", "hello daddy". Could he be any sweeter? We had brought him some dinosaurs to play with so Caleb helped him get them out of his backpack and he set them up perfectly and played - all the while still looking at Chris and I and checking us out. He let me touch his face and hold his hand but I didn't try to hug him or pick him up.

We stayed in the room with him for only about 10 minutes as the Civil Affairs office was closing for the day. On the way to the elevator I held out my arms to him and said "mommy?" and he came to me and let me carry him downstairs and outside. He didn't say much at all until we arrived at the hotel. And then, boy did he come out of his shell!!!

He loved the hotel room - loved Caleb and was jumping on the bed, playing with cars, playing with a beach ball we brought, talking, laughing and just having a really good time.

He found the clothes we had brought him and immediately wanted his new sneakers so we put those on and he walked around proud as a peacock!

We went to supper with a couple of the other families in our group and all went well. He took lots of photos with our camera - he would only take pictures of Caleb and of course Caleb obliged by making lots of funny faces and being silly.

He drew a picture of a sun on his magna doodle and said "Mommy!" and showed me the picture. It's incredible how well our first few hours are going. We put him to bed and he didn't cry. We let him watch a bit of Toy Story and gave him a flashlight to play with and then he started to fall asleep.

It's unbelievable that I can look over at his little bed and he is actually there! You dream about this moment for months and you play it over and over in your mind and then all of a sudden, it's a reality. I don't know if I actually ever thought it would happen but now that it has, we are so happy and thrilled with this little miracle!!!

Some other info...he was wearing a spiderman shirt that we had sent him in our care package back in Feb. He also brought a little backpack with him and inside was a package of dinosaurs we had bought him and a coloring book. Inside the coloring book, his foster mother had "hidden" 4 pictures of her with him and some of him at Kindergarten.

We saw the inside of his mouth and his palate is not fully closed. The orphanage director said we had to be careful with feeding him as some large things can get stuck in the hole. He is definitely going to need surgery to repair it. His lip looks good although our agency director says he will definitely need surgery to make it look better. I'm kind of partial to that lip!!! He is also missing one or two teeth on the side of his mouth and some others are growing in crooked but I don't think it's going to be a big deal. The good news is he speaks exceptionally well - both with his Chinese and when he mimics English words. He speaks very clearly.

He is also very smart - he has memorized his foster mother's name and her phone # so hopefully we will be able to touch base with her when we return to Canada.

We are so happy to finally be with him...what an absolute blessing!!!!! As soon as we came back to the hotel from meeting Evan, we were able to SKYPE with Dylan and Alyssa before Dylan headed off to school for the day. Evan yelled out "Hello!" "Ni Hao" "Dylan". He was cute. The kids got to see him via webcam as well so it's finally real for all of us.

Enjoy the pictures...

Dad, Caleb and Evan at the first meeting

Evan with his dinosaurs just minutes after meeting him

Evan at supper

Evan and Mom together

Mom, Caleb and Evan outside the Civil Affairs Building

Caleb and Evan walking together as we head to supper

One of Evan's camera photos - Caleb acting silly for him!

Caleb and I giving the orphanage donations to the Director of Liuzhou

Caleb and Mom outside of hotel...really beautiful gardens