Gotcha Day...for Real this Time!! (Day 6)

Our day began with our usual 3:30am wakeup from our time change, we felt rested and ready but still a bundle of nerves.  Brittney did the overseas nesting thing, getting the hotel room into nursery conditions and baby proofing everything.  We headed to breakfast and had another wonderful meal.  The guys seem to like the experimental eating of Chinese breakfasts while the ladies seems to play it safe with the more Western breakfast elements.  

What a difference a night makes for these children.  Last night many were screaming and not doing well, but eventually they all caved in and got a pretty good night's rest (despite a crazy thunderstorm).  At breakfast is was precious to see these kiddoes sitting and eating with their new families.

Our group regathered for a trip to the government office around 9am.  We headed over through crazy Chinese city driving.  Jonathan finds these drives entertaining while Brittney finds them terrifying.  Once we arrived at the office we realized something amazing.  In the foyer of the 30+ story building were two humongous paintings (try 5yards*10yards...maybe a bit smaller but you get the idea).  You know what the first picture was of...in the middle of communist, atheist China?  It was the scene of Moses' adoption by Pharoah's daughter.  How cool is our God, right?  Christians can't buy Bibles or meet openly (except in the scarce government approved churches), but here was a humongous Bible scene.  Jonathan asked our guide later on (when we had finished our Gotcha Day) if she knew what the picture was of, she didn't but was curious, so guess who got to do a little storytelling? :) God is good!

We love the fact that one of the most famous adoptions in all of human history was put there on that wall by our great God.  Future adoptive families from Guiyang, make sure you get a picture if you can!

Well today (for the other four families) was called 'Adoption Day' as the paperwork was completed.    We were a bit concerned about how the children would do in going back to the same room where they experienced the trauma of leaving their foster families, but they did great.  So much different and peaceful and playful.  It was sweet seeing them play together (and steal toys and fight as all kids do, haha).  The orphanage directors were present and the families received copies of the newspaper ads that had been taken to try to find the families who had abandoned the children.  The four children in our group were abandaned by police stations, by a street intersection, and by a clinic.  The meeting was finished off with a lot of photos and a short ceremony in which the families were presented with a 'minority ethnic group' doll...more on that in a bit.  We then finished up and headed back to the hotel while our guide took their children's passport paperwork to the police station/passport office for processing.

We all were dropped off at the hotel and Brittney and I had the toughest 1.5 hour waiting period remaining until our Gotcha Day really happened.  We tried to distract ourselves with Facebook and messaging but thankfully the time passed and we were ready to head back to the government building.  We have a sweet couple from Florida we befriended online before flying overseas who were sweet enought to send their husband Jonathan with us to take pictures while we received Alia.  We are so blessed.  This time (to the Jonathans' delight and Brittney's terror) we drove in a car instead of a bus and got to experience the traffic/nascar race at street level, lol.  We made it safely with no dents or scratches or messed drawers.

We thought our surprises were over, but nope!  On our way to the orphanage our guide received a call that Alia was sick.  They said it had just begun that day (our conspiracy-theory suspicion is that she was sick for awhile and that is why our Gotcha Day was delayed...to buy time for her to get better) as she traveled from her orphanage in Anshun to the government building in Guiyang.  We think Satan just wasn't too happy about this girl coming into a family dedicated to Jesus so he tried to throw things off...but Greater is He who is in us than him who is in the world (take a little 1 John 4:4 action you devil!).  The orphanage workers who brought Alia had called ahead to warn us because they were delayed in taking care of her...but traffic fun ensured we were late for our 2pm appointment too.

We finally arrive and exited the elevator on the 24th floor and headed to the office.  Before we arrived at the office we saw Alia in the hallway with her two orphanage workers.  Our hearts stopped.  We were so overwhelmed with joy.  Immediately they gave her to us (with diarrhea soaked pants and a full diaper, but we didn't care!) and our hearts leaped back into action.  She is so sweet.  She has such a wonderful and gentle disposition.  We entered into the government office holding Alia and began to talk to her orphanage workers...but first we had to....

Change diapers, change diapers, change diapers, change diapers.  We write that four times because we changed Alia's diaper four times in the course of an hour.  I will spare you the details (good bathroom humor literally), but we were thankful that we 1) were experienced diaper changers 2) had four diapers on us 3) that the government office had extra wipes when we ran out.  We took over the women's restroom together and claimed the sink for a changing area.  No changing table was available and every stall in both bathrooms was empty of TP. Haha!

The most beautiful thing happened on our first diaper change, Alia's spoke her first words to us (other than her below the waist noise making).  She looked up at Brittney as she was changing her and cried, 'mama!'  Talk about tears flowing and beauty in the midst of a random ladies restroom.  The setting and smell didn't matter a bit, we were just thankful to be together finally.  (side note: yes, Jonathan did go in the ladies restroom to help Brittney and yes we did have a visitor who did her thing while we were in there together...weird but true!)

In between our diaper changing drama we got to talk with the two ladies who came from the Anshun orphanage.  They were so sweet and took almost as many pictures as we did.  They answered our questions very graciously about everything they knew about her.  They shared how she will stand her ground if other kids try to take her toys yet described her as very social and sweet with other kids.  They described her as the "most beloved baby" of the orphanage while saying how she is now our beloved baby.  They gave us a USB memory stick (we had sent) that they filled with all the pictures they had of her (she arrived at the orphanage at 2 weeks old...we haven't opened the USB files yet but pray for some early pics of her).  It was such a sweet time with these ladies and because we were the only family there we were not rushed and had plenty of time with our sweet guide to translate.  The documentation went smoothly (you sign about 20 times and thumbprint your signatures), verifying that we would care for Alia and never abandon her.  Adoptive love is a picture of God's love for his children.

Many of you do not know this, but Alia was abandoned at an elementary school where she would be found quickly (a loving and thoughtful location to be left).  Because of Alia's medical conditions, she may not have survived early on without getting the medical treatment she needed...and because of her family's likely poverty they probably would not have been able to afford the care she needed.  Alia's birth mother left a note on her with her birthdate and 20 yuan ($3, a lot for the improverished area she is from).  You know what we got?  The note.  The 20 yuan bill.  The orphanage workers kept them so that we could give them to Alia.  We were beyond touched and never imagined we would actually have these precious heirlooms for her.

Early on in our adoption process, Jonathan had been specifically praying for a child from Guizhou (the province Alia is from) and for a Miao (ethnic group) child.  93% of Chinese people are of the Han majority ethnic group but there are about 50 other ethnic minority groups across China.  Guizhou is the poorest province in China and also has the most minority ethnic groups (about a third of the population).  A year ago, when we first asked to look at Alia's file (the first file we looked at), we had no idea that she was from Guizhou province, but God provided!  Several knowledgable people from this region have remarked that by Alia's pictures she appeared to be Miao because of her large eyes and darker skin complexion.  When we met Alia's orphanage workers we asked them if she was Han or a minority ethnic group.  I think they were concerned with their answer, not sure how we would react (the minority ethnic groups are not always treated the best over here), but they said they were confident she was a Miao!!  How amazing (out of the 30 ethnic groups in Guizhou) that the Lord would give us a Miao baby (btw if you want a dorky research paper on the Miao culture, just ask Jonathan, he wrote one a few years ago before we even started our adoption process).  The orphanage workers even brought a special Miao gift that they are going to give us on our Adoption Day tomorrow in addition to the Miao ethnic doll we get from the authorities.

Alia never cried.  During our entire time with her at the adoption office, Alia never cried.  It might sound like a good thing, but actually it isn't.  Children from orphanages have problems with bonding because they never attach to any one person, constantly being passed around or left alone.  It isn't the orphanage's or the nannies' fault there is simply not enough workers for all the orphans to get the attention they need.  Alia still hasn't cried (16 hours later) except when in pain from throwing up or going to the bathroom.  She is attaching to us though :). She had called Jonathan 'ba ba' (father) several times and calls for Brittney 'ma ma' many, many times with her arms outstretched!  It is the sweetest sight and sound.  Because of Alia's attachment process we probably will be the only two people holding her for many weeks.  She needs to learn that she is not in an orphanage any more and will not be passed around.  So, friends and family, if we don't let you hold her for awhile, please understand...she needs to learn how to attach to us and it will take a long time (we've had to read a lot on this subject as part of our adoption training).  Please pray for her to attach and bond with us quickly.  Believe it or not, we actually would like to hear her cry for us.

You may notice that Alia's arms look different.  They are.  God created her unique and she is differently abled.  We wanted to explain this because we know people have questions about her but might feel uncomfortable asking.  Alia has an association called VACTERL.  It is not a disease or contagious.  It is a rare condition....we like to call her our "jackpot baby" because only 1 in 200,000 babies have what she has.  Basically Alia has a different spine (curved), different arms (missing or smaller radial bone), different hands and wrists (can't use her wrists and thumbs the way many people do), and will get checked on other issues (heart, kidneys, esophagus, etc.) when we get home.  God made Alia beautiful and special and we are so thankful for her, exactly the way God made her!  She has already found her own unique way of using her special arms to hold things and she has quite the strong grip in holding her bottle. :). Even though Alia is almost 29 months old, her physical size, communication, and behaviors are more comparable with a 12 month old.  Orphans are generally delayed but also end up rapidly catching up with children their age and thriving once they have a family of their own.  Please pray for Alia to rapidly catch up and thrive!

Adoption is ultimately a picture of God's love for His children.  He came after them when they were sick, deformed, helpless, and hopeless.  Jesus Christ took the sin of this world upon Himself, dying on the cross and rising from the grave, so that He might provide a way for people to have relationship with His Father through the forgiveness of our sins.  If you are not a Christian, we pray that you come to salvation by trusting in Christ as your Lord and Savior, believing that He loved you enough to come after you and die for you, but knowing that in His deity He conquered Satan, death, and sin (Romans 6:23, 10:9-10).  If you are a Christian we pray that you will look at adoption in a new light, realizing the depths of Christ's love for you.  May we believers be faithful to live out that love towards God and others (Mark 12:29-31) and especially towards the widows and orphans (James 1:27).

As we write this, Alia is tossing and turning in bed (still not crying), filling diapers with a horrible stomach virus.  Can you please pray for Alia?  We really want her to stop throwing up and having diarrhea and fever.  We do not want to have to go to the hospital if we don't have to (we've had enough tourism haha) and want our sweet girl to enjoy this alone time with us.  She is taking fluids and we are in constant communication with our pediatrician (this is why we brought a rental phone!) who is so sweet to take our phone calls and messages at odd hours.  Please pray for Alia to bond and attach to us quickly.  Please pray for us so that in a few hours our adoption is officially and legally finalized.  We are so blessed and thankful to God for providing Alia but also for providing us such amazing friends and family and strangers who are praying for us.  God loves you and we love you.