Sweet, Sweet Caleb and His Gotcha Day

We have been blessed with such a sweet, funny little boy. He is constantly making us laugh with his funny faces he makes and his cute, sweet personality has made us both fall head over heals in love with him.  What a precious soul!

We met Caleb on Easter Sunday.  It was 4:00 in the afternoon here in Ch*na.  I am going to be honest - all through the last year of paper work, waiting and fundraising I have been a nervous wreck.  I honestly didn't know what to expect.  Caleb is seven years old and in that seven years has experienced so much life. I had many ups and downs with my emotions and Easter Sunday was no different.

We drove to the civil affairs office which is about 15 minutes from our hotel.  When we arrived, we found out that he was already there and waiting for us.  We took the elevator to the floor where we would meet our son for the very first time.  Hand in hand Nate and I walked into the room and saw Caleb sitting in a chair with a very solemn look on his face.  We walk over to him and I knelt down.  The worker from the orphanage said something and tapped him on the back, so he would stand.  She pointed to us and said "Mama. Baba", and Caleb quietly repeated her.  At this point, I was bracing myself for a complete breakdown, meltdown, freakout but instead what happened astounded me.  I noticed that he was holding the matchbox car that we had sent.  I asked him if I could see it.  He handed it to me and I smiled and handed it back.  Then, Nate reached into our backpack and pulled out a matchbox car and truck that we brought for him.  We opened it up and I put one on the small table next to us and pushed it towards him.  He smiled. Then, he pushed it back.  This went on for a minute or two and he kept smiling.  Then he got down on the floor and launched the car across the floor and laughed.  He then started jumping all over and smiling.  Nate got down on the floor with him and they started pushing the cars back and forth as fast as they could, and he was loving it!  Then, Caleb stood up and pulled out a deck of cards.  They were in his pocket.  He held them up to Nate and Nate shook his head to tell him "yes" he would like to play.  Caleb then proceeded to shuffle them like a pro and teach Nate a card game.  It was hysterical.

They continued to play and I had some time to talk with the women from the orphanage.  I asked a lot of questions about his routine and about the orphanage.  She told us that Caleb had been told about us and they have been preparing him for our family for the last 8 months.  She said that he was excited to meet us and that he wanted a family.

Our guide told us that they would not let us stay and play all day:-) so we needed to sign a custody paper so they could release Caleb into our care until our official paper work the next day.  She then told Caleb it was time to go and to say goodbye to the worker and director from the orphanage, so he turned around and said "bye bye".  And marched off with us to the elevator.

There has been no looking back for Caleb over the last couple of days.  He had a tough night last night, but even though it was tough, he didn't push us away.  Instead he let us comfort him and lay with him.  Our guide asked if he wanted to go back to say goodbye to everyone.  He said "no".  I hope and pray that he was treated well there.

Today I got to go to Caleb's finding place.  That is a different post for a different day.  It was so much to take in and my mind is still whirling.

God is so good!  Psalm 139:5 says "You hem me in - behind and before, you have laid your hand upon me".  God has definitely gone before us on this trip and everything about it has completely exceeded all of my expectations.  I am thankful that I kept listening to His voice when fear would try to consume me because we would have missed out on one of our greatest blessings.  He is always faithful when we follow.  Even if the road ahead is not easy, I know that we are on His road and there is no other place that I want to be.