Charlie's Gotcha Day!

Monday was Gotcha Day!  That morning we were all a little nervous.  Sam got all sentimental when he realized it was our last breakfast as a family of four.  He said, “I’m so happy to have a new brother, but it will never be just the four of us again, and that makes me a little sad.”  We stopped by the bank to change our dollars to Yuan for our orphanage donation, and Stephen went in with our guide and I stayed in the van with the driver and the kids.  I think they were gone for about 20 minutes, but it seemed like 20 hours.  I was so nervous something was wrong with our money, our bills had been around Stephen’s waist in a money belt getting drenched for the past 3 days.  What if they wouldn’t accept them?  Then when I thought my heart would pound out of my chest, another car hit our van from behind!  Our driver has quite the temper and I was so scared.  We were supposed to be at the Civil Affairs office to adopt Charlie in 15 minutes!  WHERE IN THE WORLD IS STEPHEN!?!?!?  The driver got out, looked at the back of the van, and apparently decided it didn’t look too bad and waved the other driver on.  Then Stephen and the guide came out smiling and calm and about 3 minutes later, I could finally breathe normally again.

At the Zhengzhou Civil Affairs office, there were about 8 other families there to adopt.  It was less crowded and less chaotic than in Guangdong when we adopted Kate.  Also, as the kids arrived with their caregivers, they just went straight to their new parents.  In Guangdong, they go behind a curtain and are called out one by one--  so nerve-wracking.  But here, we got to watch all of these families see their kids come in and approach them one by one.  It was really sweet.  Most of them were babies or toddlers.  Charlie was the last one to get there and he came in sitting on his suitcase on wheels, rolling around the room.  He was smiling, and laughing this nervous little laugh, and it was very clear he was more nervous than he had been we he met us at Bethel.  That had been all fun, but now he seemed a little unsure.  Teacher Fang who has loved him and cared for him at Bethel since he was 2 brought him and was just amazing.  She said he hadn’t acted nervous before they got there, just excited.  They had left Bethel at 5:00am and taken trains and buses to get to us at 10:15am.  

After a few minutes we convinced him to come sit with us on a couch and show us what he brought in his bag.  He was able to relax and happy to show us his things.  In his bag were the things we had given him on Friday, a music box carousel thing that a sponsor had given him that plays Beethoven music, a roll of toilet paper, a few clothes and about 50 snacks.  This kids loves snacks.

When it was time to tell Teacher Fang goodbye she and Sam and I were crying, and then when she was walking away, Charlie started crying.  He had the saddest face I have ever seen, with silent tears streaming down his cheeks.  When Kate saw that, she busted out crying.  Then, even Stephen was crying.  It was so sad, but healthy too.  We are so thankful for his time at Bethel, and they are so happy for him to have a wonderful life with a loving family.  Goodbyes are hard, but it is nice knowing we can Skype with her. 

After we finished signing all of the papers, we told Charlie we could go to the supermarket.  He jumped up immediately, and walked straight to the door.  When we got in the van, he kept saying “Supermarket!  Supermarket!”  

He had a great time riding in the cart at Walmart and looking around and asking lots of questions.  After that we went and rode a carousel and then had lunch at Burger King.  He had told us he likes hamburgers, but apparently he didn’t mean Whoppers.  He ate fries and drank the Coke, but he kept saying “No hamburger.”

After lunch our guide told us good-bye for the day and we were off to figure out how to communicate with each other.  We went to the pool, played with toys in the room, ate Ramen Noodles and fruit for dinner and then played on the iPad.

  

Around 7:30pm, we all put on pj’s but he wanted to sleep in his clothes.  We asked him if he wanted to sleep on the couch or in the bed with us, and even though he thought it was hilarious that we would sleep together, that is what he chose.  We got in bed and read some books and sang about 5 songs, and he went to sleep.  He slept until 6:00am in the morning.  It was 100% easier than I expected, and possibly too good to be true.  We shall see.  (Kate said he snores louder than any kids she has ever known.)