Six Months Ago Today...First Meeting (with pictures and video)

Six Months Ago Today... 
we met our son for the very first time!

Six months ago he joined our family, and our lives will never be the same!

   We are blessed beyond measure to have our little baby boy in our lives.  I can't believe it has been as long as it has.  

   In honor of today, I thought I would post about the day we first met Gambo (I told you I would post travel posts anyway, well... I'm just now getting to it!)

Meeting baby E:

Feb 16th, 2013

I am sitting here writing right now and getting to look at my son's face!  Today we met and brought home with us baby E.  Mark and I couldn't sleep-in this morning, even after getting in late last night.  We woke up and 6:30am, with a few crows of the rooster outside our guest house window.  We spent some time together in the morning to get ready.  While we waited for Kristy (my sister-in-law who came with us to take pictures and document the trip), we mostly finished organizing the room for E.  Then we went to breakfast.  The guest house makes breakfast for us, and we could order a bunch of different foods.  Mark got scrambled eggs and sausage (which turned out to be British-style sausage).  I had a cheese omlette, which was good.  We ate out on a balcony overlooking the beautiful gardens.

We arranged a driver from the guest house to take us to the baby home.  It was a little bit of a drive out there.  We got there at 11:30am.  On the way I felt little butterflies in my stomach thinking about what was to come.  But mostly I was just ready to get there.  

We pulled up to the baby home and there was a big metal gate in front, so we waited for Kristy to go first and video tape us.  

We walked into a court yard.  I looked around and saw a lot of kids, but not E immediately.  

We said hello to all the people there, then we went inside, and the first person I recognized was Carissa (the other adoptive family from our agency who were there at the same time to adopt from the same baby home).  Carissa and Jon were still there to pick up their girl S.  So, actually, I was meeting and saying hi to them and the caregivers when E came into the room.  

Sophie, his caregiver, was carrying him.  

He was wearing a dress, because that is the clothes they had for him.  We said hello tenatively.  Then I asked to pick him up, and when I did, he cried. 

 To be expected.  "Who are these people and why are they white?"  

(Here's the video of us first meeting):

Anyway, I gave him back, but then Mark held him, and he was OK with Mark, but still not happy.  Then we sat with Sophie on the couch while she held him and just talked for a long time.  I pulled out a toy we brought for him, a little rattle/ball, and that seemed to loosen him up.  

Eventually we were able to touch him and hold him.  We were able to change him into some boy clothes that we brought for him. 

I tried giving him a bottle at first but he was fussy.  He preferred Sophie to feed him.  Anyway, we spent about an hour and a half there and I got to ask Sophie lots of questions.  I held E too.  I was nervous and a little scared because I didn't know what I was doing.  

We took lots of pictures.  Sophie cried when she had to say good-bye to him when we left. She loved him almost like her own child, and he really loved her.  

He took a nap right away when we left so he slept the whole way home, about an hour.  

Then we got back to the room and we were trying to get him to calm down since he seemed upset.  He would NOT take any bottle but his bottle from the orphanage.  (Thank goodness they let us take that with us!)  And his bottle had a HUGE hole in the nipple so that the milk flowed really quickly and poured down his throat and neck.  Sadly, he doesn't know how to suck on regular nipples.  We felt like he needed to eat, but he wasn't eating.  We did notice that he had a wet diaper two times, so we changed that.  

We put him in the carrier and walked to a cafe for lunch.  

Kristy and I had hamburgers with a little bit of a spicy sauce on them.  Mark had a chicken pita.  They all came with fries, so I gave some to E.  

He really liked them, yeah!  We tried giving him yogurt bites, and he spit them out.  Then we walked back to the house.  

E really seems to like the carrier.  Then we tried calming him down.  Mark put him to sleep in his arms, so we placed him in the basinet, and I took a nap next to him.  

Then he woke up, and we tried feeding him again.  We finally managed to get him to eat rice cereal mixed with formula.  He ate a good bit of it!  

Then we played with him a little bit more before we were ready to go down to dinner.  We decided to have dinner here at the guest house, since it was easier.  This time I put him in the Moby wrap and he liked that too.  I had chicken and rice and veggies for dinner.  Mark had the boiled potatoes, so we fed him more potatoes, rice, chicken, zucchini, and he ate it all.  It was good to have him eat something.  

Then we came up for bed.  He was pretty calm, so we got him ready for bed.  I slathered on the mint body butter, and he really liked that.  It calmed him down, and I loved giving him soft touch.  Then we put him in a sleep n' play and rubbed his head and sang for him.  He was really sleepy, so we put him in the basinet.  Mark prayed with him and I, and we put the sound machine on.  Thankfully Sophie told us that he sleeps on his stomach, because as soon as we switched him to his stomach, he fell asleep.  Now he is sleeping soundly, so is Mark, and I am journaling.

What we've seen today: E loves his daddy, and will cling to him.  He also likes to hear singing, and I learned some songs from his caregiver today.  He can babble and even give high five's.  He is super tiny in his diaper size, and each pair of shoes we brought are too big.  He has gorgeous brown eyes.  

The day has been a long and educational one.  He is still scared of us and misses his caregivers, but we are showing him love in the best way that we can.  

Tonight I was holding him before bedtime, and he was resting his head on my chest.  He was being really snuggly.  I rested my chin on his head, and had my arms wrapped around him, and just felt a moment of joy.  I thought "This is my son forever.  This is the two of us together.  I feel really at one with him right now, and this moment is so special.  I will treasure this forever"

    The first night proved to be an eventful one, but that is for another post...  Now you have a glimpse into our first day together as a family of three.

    So much change has occurred since that day!  We are so in love with our little boy now, and he is much more attached to us and in love with us as well! 

Six Months Ago:

Skinny, sullen, inactive

Today:

Smiling, chubby cheeks, active

All praise and glory can go to our Heavenly Father who put this family together!

Most of the photos taken by Kristy Struska