Gotcha Day

Well gotcha day is in the books. I would be lying if I said it was perfect. I would also be lying if I said I expected perfection. Elisabeth Ming Yu arrived around 430 pm. Lauren and I have been parents of a teenager for 13 hours now. During those 13 hrs we have seen a lot of emotions. We've had tears, smiles, fear, laughter...  I think you get the picture. Ming Yu was brought to us by two workers from her orphanage. One was her primary caregiver.  The two of them obviously have a strong bond. It will be hard for Ming Yu knowing that she won't see her again after today. She was very loving to Ming Yu and let her know that being part of a family will be the best thing for her even if she misses her friends from school and her orphanage.  The language barrier is pretty daunting as well. The translators that I planned to use don't work well with the rather poor wifi in our hotel. When we finally did get them to work they were helpful, but it's really hard to show how much love you have for a person on an electronic screen. Lauren and I relied on a lot of hand waving, hand holding, and sitting silently together deciding what to try next. Lauren bought her a cake from the  bakery in our hotel.  We were told that cake was her favorite food. After being with us for a while she ate a piece and seemed to enjoy it.  In China instead of Facebook people use a program called QQ.  Things seemed to improve when Ming Yu was able to use it on the room tv/computer. I don't know who she was talking to or what she said but it definitely brought her comfort.   After multiple attempts I finally got QQ installed on the iPad we brought for her and she fell asleep talking to friends. She slept, and is in fact still sleeping great.

Missy, our adoption representative is wonderful. She talks to Ming Yu and encourages her while helping us with the process every step of the way. She will take us to sign more papers today and Ming Yu legally becomes our child.  In our hearts she has been our child for 2 months now.   I asked her if she wanted to go shopping after completing the papers, and I got a smile. A smile was the best answer I could get.

Today will be another adventure of emotions I am sure. I pray that we will be prepared to accept all of the emotions that will come.  As a man and father I want to stop the tears but sometimes tears are necessary. I want to make her love us as much as we love her. That's going to take time. She will learn to love us and her brothers and sisters. God placed her in our lives to make all of our lives better, and I know he will be faithful to do just that.

Lauren is trying to post pics on Facebook currently. Ming Yu doesn't like getting her picture taken but she will learn that in this family that's not an option!!!  We hope to have many more pics today.