Day 5 - Gotcha Day - the Details
So Gotcha Day started full of nerves and energy for us all. So many questions about how it would play out. So neat to see it through a child’s eyes in Sophia this time though. She was amped up and yet so nervous too. Her main concern was whether Mia would like her and want to be a part of our family.
We started the day with an even larger buffet breakfast. Jonathan tried some new things (kiwi juice, peanut milk, and some different looking Chinese items) and some were great and some were worthy of being set aside lol. Brittney and Sophia were pumped to see they had banana bread, one of their favorites and strawberry yogurt.
After a filling breakfast we ventured outside to explore the “neighborhood”. Guiyang is a city of 4.5 million in a province of 35 million and although small by Chinese standards this city has a bigger population than our entire state of Kentucky. The city streets have bridges and tunnels to cross under the larger streets so we went underground to go down the road and explore some shops.
We enjoyed a bakery where we got pizza for our lunch as well as a panda cake for Mia’s Gotcha Day celebration. Brittney and Sophia explored a makeup and pharmacy type store where we bought goggles for swimming later and nice travel items too. I think since most everything is made in China it’s usually considerably cheaper here too!
Once we returned to the hotel we got cleaned up and prepared for the day ahead. One of the most nerve wracking things on an adoption trip can be carrying a large amount of cash (for the governmental fees and an orphanage donation) and then exchanging it in country. Suddenly you have several large stacks of cash (1 US $ = 6.6 Chinese Yuan / RMB ) that makes you a bit more conscious of your surroundings. Thankfully China is really safe so we are thankful for that.
After the money exchange we headed to our Gotcha Day via minivan. This experience was a bit different than our first in that we were the only adoption family that we’ve seen so far in Guiyang (about 6 families adopted in 2014). The office and building were the same and we ventured up to the small office on the 24th floor.
We arrived before our daughter so we chatted with our guide Dolores (who is a world traveler!) and worked ahead on our paperwork with two of the regional adoption workers.
When our Mia arrived we were so thrilled!! What a joy to embrace this petite person for the first time. Her smile lights up the room and her laugh is infectious! She is so shy and quiet with her lips but communicates clearly in her eyes. Her listening & understanding of English is phenomenal! What a blessing!! And her desire to be adopted so moved our hearts.
Older children in China have to agree to be adopted. Can you imagine the changes they are agreeing to? The fears, uncertainties, and challenges they face? Mia had to agree to be adopted by us. She had to be willing to join our family. And she did. It was so beautiful to watch her write out her name, add her fingerprint, and indicate that she wanted us. Brittney couldn’t hold back the tears, Sophia sat right by her side in that special moment and Jonathan was of course taking pictures!
And we wanted her. We signed our names along with our fingerprint about 20 times, writing statements of our desire to love her for a lifetime and our promise to care for her. The paperwork was a necessary but important part of a beautiful gift of our forever daughter.
While we did paperwork, Sophia and Mia hit it off. They looked through photos from an amazing photo album that Mia’s foster mom put together, detailing the most recent years of her life. They played games on a tablet and talked together, interacting like they’ve known each other forever. It is so sweet to watch them begin to bond so quickly and a huge answer to prayer. We were hesitant with bringing Sophia with us, due to the challenges of her missing school right before state testing, the challenges of International travel and time changes, but she has done amazing. We are so thankful the Lord directed us to bring her and gave us a peace. She has been a huge help and comfort to Mia and us! We are so very proud of her!
We had the privilege of getting some wonderful background information from Mia’s foster mother, it is obvious that Mia has been loved so well for so long. The pictures in her photo album tell such an incredible story of love. Although Mia was doing so well in our first moments with her we know there will be phases of grieving ahead as she misses her foster family and friends.
After leaving the adoption offices we returned by minivan to our hotel. Our guide Dolores was so kind to help us order some Pizza Hut through her phone. Almost everything seems paid for by phone around here and the food companies deliver in about 40 minutes to the hotel then the hotel workers brought the food directly to our room. We surprised Mia with a small panda cake we had bought at a bakery ahead of time and stashed in our hotel refrigerator. Mia enjoyed some spaghetti and loved the strawberries that were on the cake :)
Following dinner we descended to our hotel’s basement pool. Chinese pools often require separate poolside sandals and swim caps for hygienic purposes. We had the pool to ourselves and enjoyed swimming for quite awhile before FaceTiming home to sisters Lydia and Alia as they woke up to get ready for school. The 12 hour time difference with home makes conversations a bit more challenging but with a rental phone and VPN, communication across the globe is incredible!
We finished the day with some iPad movie watching and sister cuddles. We had a good night’s rest for a few hours but Brittney and Jonathan are still having a tough time sleeping from midnight until 3am. I’m sure we’ll get a full night’s rest just before we head back home lol Mia and Sophia were wide awake at 5:00 so it will be interesting to see if they get tired today!
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