Gotcha Day!

Oh, how I have yearned for the day when I could do this post! I have watched endless videos on others' Gotcha Days, and it was finally our turn. The whole experience was so surreal. I wish there was another word. I'm sure there is. I just can't think of it now. As we woke up, I felt nervous, excited, out of breath, fidgety, like I was in a dream, weird--in a good way!
We had arranged the room to be ready for Isaiah because, after all, we were bringing him with us this time! There would be no leaving him at the orphanage. We would see him and take him with us. It still gives me shivers to think of it.

When we arrived at the orphanage, we drove up to the now familiar black gate. It all seemed so normal in a way since we had already been there numerous times. We thought we would have a camera man there to film everything, but it turned out that he wasn't. So, sadly, we don't have that moment on video. But, I did manage to snap this picture--the first view we got of Isaiah!
Yes! He was holding out his arms to us. I don't know if he did that to everyone, but it made this Mommy so happy! It seemed like he remembered us. This video was taken right at I picked him up and after Chris had had a chance to hug him.

First picture with Daddy.
This video shows his first moments with Chris.

We spent a few minutes getting to know each other again. We were able to give him a drink. We played with the picture book again. The orphanage staff gave us some valuable gifts: a scrapbook and a CD with 100 pictures of Isaiah during his time in the orphanage. Wow. I was so amazed at how they went above and beyond for us. In these are pictures of his first birthday party. Yes, they had a birthday party for him. There are also pictures of his play time. This was so great!

Then, it was time to change him into different clothes. Some of our friends reminded us that this is so similar to when we are adopted by God into His family. He has to strip us of everything we have in order to give us the good stuff. We would never want to imply that the clothes Isaiah had while in the orphanage were not good. They were. It was just a symbolic act to us.Here he is. . . ready to go!
And, just like that, we were off! We made our way out of the building, through the courtyard, out the gate, and into the van taking us back to the CWA transition home where all of the other families were meeting their kids.
Isaiah was now our child, legally and physically.