It's a BOY!

It’s finally here! We had lunch at a Chinese fast food restaurant that is downstairs from the hotel, and went back up to our room to prepare to meet Isaac. Craig and I were so nervous we could hardly eat, we should have shared our meal!

The ride to the Civil Affairs office was crazy, but I figured that God didn’t bring us all the way to China to adopt a little boy to have us die in an accident on the way there! The roads are narrow because we are staying in a city that has been a commercial center for Guangzhou for over 500 years. Cars are competing with pedestrians, bicycles, and carts. Even though it is very congested and appears disorderly there are no horns honking to alert people to get out of the way. I thought, “Surely if we don’t get into an accident, we will hit somebody!” At a couple of points Craig & I both had to cover our eyes. Lynne laughed, but I don’t know if she covered her eyes as well.

As we neared the Civil Affairs office the driver told Xixi that he saw the orphanages car. Xixi said, “Look! Over there! There is your son!” I looked and saw a beige car with blue writing on it and two women were getting out of the car with babies. There was Isaac only a few feet away from us!! The driver pulled into the street in front of the office and we got out as quickly as we could. The first time we came face to face with Isaac was in front of the Civil Affairs office with one of his favorite nannies holding him. It was so amazing.

We made it up to the 8th floor of the Civil Affairs office and had to wait quite a long time to actually meet our son. The director had to wait for the officials before we were allowed to hold him. We were able to see him in a special room for the children as he played with his nanny and we saw that he is trying hard to learn how to walk. He enjoys picking himself up and walking along the edge of various objects. While we waited an official came out into the waiting room and had us fill out a paper. We had to list our passport information and address.

Then Xixi had me begin to fill out paperwork that we will need tomorrow when we go back to the Civil Affairs office to complete our adoption. (Today we were allowed to take him to make sure that we want to keep him. What!??!! Of course we want to keep him!!!!) As I stared to fill out the paperwork they decided that we were able to meet our son, I the paperwork in mid-sentence and rushed to meet him. We had to dig out our passports so that the director could assure that we were the new parents. As I reached for Isaac the first thing he did was grab our passports!

It was so cute! It was almost as if he was saying, “All right! I’m ready! Let’s go home!” He never cried, but seemed to really enjoy us. After a few minutes I let the new ba-ba hold his son. It was so amazing to see Craig with Isaac. The nanny and director told us that he does not respond to his name, but that he does respond to what sounds like Er Zuh (Chinese for son). It’s dark in here and I don’t know where the paper where I wrote the actual words down are.

In the van on the way home Isaac enjoyed playing with his ba-ba. They don’t use car seats here and it was nice to take turns holding him. He seems to like us both, which is really good! When we got back to the room Xixi took Craig and Lynne out to search for formula and some other treats for the baby. Isaac and I stayed in the room and got to know each other better. He discovered the mirror and enjoyed playing with the other baby. He seems to be pretty with it and tried to look behind the mirror to find his playmate. As he played with the mirror he laughed and smiled a lot.

Xixi took the others to the same restaurant downstairs where we had eaten lunch to buy some steamed egg for Isaac to eat for dinner. So after 14 months Isaac had his first taste of fast food Chinese style. (It’s a restaurant named after Bruce Lee.) He loved the steamed egg and Xixi fed him most of his dinner. He is a very messy eater!

After the excitement of his day and with a full belly he fell asleep as Craig was holding him. It was so beautiful to see my handsome husband holding his son as he slept. It was so good to see this little boy so content. He feel asleep around 5:15 and Lynne & Xixi went out to dinner with another family from our agency. Craig and I stayed behind with Isaac to be together, then like good parents everywhere we went to bed around 6:00. We have heard to sleep when the baby sleeps because you never know when you will get to sleep. I couldn’t get back to sleep after I woke up at 11:00 so I decided to write this down and try to get this posted so our friends and family could see that we are now a family of three!

Isaac has been sleeping almost seven hours now. I’m not sure how much longer he’ll sleep so I’m going to post this so that I am ready once he wakes up. Thank you all for your prayers, keep them coming!!

Love,
Gretchen, Craig, & Isaac