Gotcha! The Sequel

We are a family of four!!!

We were to receive Aidan last night around 5 pm. We had a really pleasant fun afternoon, very low stress. We hung out at the pool, went to the grocery, had McDonald's for lunch. On our way back from the grocery Emmy proclaimed one of her favorite things about Guatemala: "Mom, I REALLY like the purple Skittles."

As I said, we were calm until about 4:30 then our stomachs were in knots. We couldn't believe that everything had come down to the phone ringing. Did it ring at 5 pm? Of course not, that wouldn't have been in keeping with this whole experience. It didn't ring till 40 minutes later. When it did I almost decapitated Emmy reaching for the phone.

The lawyer's translater was on the phone and said that everyone was down in the lobby and would need one of us to come down and escort them to the room. He said that the foster mother was very sad and had brought her children to help her get through it.

We decided that I would go downstairs. I walked through the lobby and saw them in them. I started to bawl. The lawyer hugged me first, then I turned and the foster mother walked toward me with her arms outstretched and we stood there and cried together. Then I looked at my boy. What a doll. The foster mother tried to hand him to me but he was having no part of it.

We went up the room and made introductions. Emmy was grabbing Dave and pulling on the video camara so I'm not sure what kind of footage we'll have. Then the translater had me ask my questions. We went over his daily schedule and eating. Then we talked about his sleeping habits.

When I asked about his personality all the kids giggled. They said he can be shy but also very demanding of attention ... sounds like someone else I know. Then they told us sometimes when he is happy he will smile and blink his eyes at you. Emmy did that too!

The family seemed very happy that we were keeping Jose' as part of his name. We asked if the foster mother had any questions for us but she just said that she would love to receive pictures of him as he grows.

While all this was going on, Aidan was crawling on the floor and became fascinated with Emmy. It was really cute. I also recall Emmy continually coming over and asking me for snacks - the ones I had told her she couldn't have. Of course I said yes, the girl really knows how to recognize an opportunity.

It was time for the family to leave and it was unbelievably gut wrenching. His foster mother truly loves him. It was a bittersweet "Gotcha", our joy was coexisting with their sorrow. Then she came to me and we hugged, this time for a long time and lots of tears. I feel like she knows I will love her honorary son and I hope we conveyed our gratitude.

Aidan cried for about 3 hours. He would stop occasionally but he was really scared. Emmy asked why he was crying about 800 times. He fell asleep on shoulder for about 30 minutes while Dave went to get us some dinner. We knew he was hungry but he would not take a bottle, only some rice cereal. About 10 o'clock I think we all fell asleep. He would cry and wimper about every 1/2 hour. I think I slept about one hour total. He woke up at 4 and was crying hard and this time took a bottle and went right back to sleep. At one point we were all sleeping good and Emmy started crying from a nightmare. Then I woke up and realized she didn't have on a pull-up so we had to wake her up to put one on.

Everyone was sound asleep finally about 5 am. We had to get up at 5:30 am to make our Embassy appointment!

I'll write more later!