We traveled 29 hours to get to China and had no problems getting here. The 15 hour plane ride was not one I was particularly fond of, and honestly am seriously dreading doing again with a 3 year old who cannot sit still! But, we will survive and we want to come home, so it must be done! We arrived in China around lunch and were greeted by our guide. She filled us in on our itinerary for the week in Zhengzhou and got us settled into our hotel. Our hotel is very nice and we unpacked and hit up Pizza Hut for dinner :) We came back to the hotel and CRASHED at 7 p.m. Our goal was to stay awake till around 11, so I would say we rocked that..haha! We tried to get a good night's sleep as we knew it would be the last one for a while...and boy were we right! I woke up around 3 a.m. from jet lag and the anxiousness of meeting Maverick. I got out of bed and down on my knees next to his crib and just started praying. I fell back asleep for maybe 30 minutes and Evan and I were up around 6:30. We enjoyed a killer breakfast at the hotel. It felt like we were in New Orleans as they were playing jazz music...score! We got some caffeine in our system and felt like new people.
At 10 a.m. we met our guide downstairs in the lobby. The entire hour before I was pacing the floor and my insides felt like they were going to burst! Evan and I prayed and thanked God for calling us to bring Maverick into our family and being faithful. We prayed that he would attach well to both of us and just feel a sense of peace. Every emotion was sweeping through my body. Nervousness, excitement, joy, sorrow. I felt it all. I knew that day was going to be hard and beautiful all at the same time...and it was! We arrived at the civil affairs office packed with families waiting to meet their children. The room was stuffy and filled with anxious parents who were staring down the hall to see if the next child being brought in was theirs. I couldn't watch, but Evan did.
On our way to meet our boy!
The Civil Affairs Office where we met Maverick
All the families waiting to meet their kiddos.
After what seemed like an eternity, I hear Evan say, "I see him, he's coming!" My heart dropped out of my chest and I tried to get a peek around the chaos of children, parents and care takers. That's when I saw him, walking down the hall, holding the hand of a lady in a red sweatshirt. Those big brown eyes were coming towards me. He was so little and so cute and he was about to be in my arms. Oh my goodness! He had on a blue backpack and way too many winter clothes for it being like 80 degrees.
As he approached the room full of American strangers and I tried to walk towards him, he began pulling the woman's hand back and trying to run away back the way he came. This was a good thing, although it hurt my heart to see him scared, I was thankful that he would not just come to a room of strangers. This is HUGE for attachment purposes, Many kids will go to anyone because they have never attached to someone and they will do whatever IT takes to gain approval from someone to get what they want. I walked towards my crying and scared boy and got down on his level. I told him hello and then I scooped him up. He was crying hard! There was so much chaos going on, that I wanted to escape. I quickly brought him to a corner of the room where we could be without everyone around. I sat him on my lap and tried to comfort him. He just kept crying. We had brought a bag full of snacks and suckers and Evan handed him his juice cup and some puffs. Immediately, he stopped crying, but you could tell he was still reserved. We looked through his backpack and the family had sent back our family photo album that we had sent to him, Where our family pic was, they had kept it and replaced it with a photo of Maverick and Joshua (his foster brother). When he saw that picture, he lit up. Suddenly he started talking like crazy! We can tell he really loves Joshua and they share a very special bond.
Grieving hard. The sucker was not working! He loves them now though!
From that point on, he played with us and smiled and laughed. We completed our paperwork there and took our official adoption picture. He smiled so big and I of course was a sweaty hot mess, but I will treasure this picture forever! Our guide told us that we had 24 hours, called a harmonious period, where we could decide if we wanted to adopt him or send him back. Ummmm...say what? That was not an option, regardless of what he was like. We had committed to loving this boy and welcoming him into our family long ago, and we were not going back on that. We told her, we don't need 24 hours, disruption is not an option! She told us, if we were sure, that we could have adoption day later that day rather than wait until Tuesday. We said "yes, let's do this." She laughed at us. Actually, she laughs at us a lot. I guess we Americans are crazy or something.
His adoption family picture at the civil affairs office. Look at that smile!
After we left the office, we went straight to Wal-Mart to get some snacks and a stroller and basics that we needed. Maverick wanted EVERY snack! Go figure! He sat in the cart and just pointed, but was very well behaved. After Wal-Mart we went to a really yummy noodle restaurant with our guide. Let me just say, the boy can EAT and he is very self sufficient! He chowed down. This is where I also had the pleasure of taking him to a squatty potty. Thank you America for Western toilets...eek! Not fun, but thankfully, he has had no accidents and lets us know when he needs to go. Also, we have him wearing pull ups instead of split pants with nothing on underneath (thank you China!).
Later than afternoon, we went to complete the adoption and Maverick officially became our son! PRAISE GOD! An orphan no longer, forever ours and we are forever his! On our way to the notary, he crashed in my arms in the van. The boy was exhausted! We finally were able to come back to our hotel room where we got some downtime. We tried to give him a bath and he screamed! I was able to do a quick wash down while I got totally soaking wet. We put him in footie pj's, which he hated at first, but by the end of the night he was zipping up and down and loving them.
Last night, we realized just how active this boy is. He runs around non stop, jumping off of things and climbing anything he can. He is very mischievous and he knows it. We have been hit and kicked and pinched when he doesn't get his way, but we have also been laughed at, kissed and hugged. He has so much fun with his Baba and if one of us leaves the room to go to the bathroom, he is calling for us until we come back "Mama, Baba!" He did not want to go to bed last night. We even turned off all of the lights and tried to get him to settle. He still ran and climbed everything. He tried to pull curtains down and push all the buttons on everything in the hotel. He would not settle and began crying hysterically! We were worn out! I mean WORN! We tried everything to comfort him and he fought us tooth and nail. We couldn't put him in his bed because he can climb over the crib rails. Finally Evan put him in the baby position and held him so close he couldn't move and paced the room with him. He FINALLY settled and Evan stuck him in bed with me. He curled up with me and knocked out. Thank you Lord!
A few hours later he woke up screaming and crying. We are in a king sized bed and he kicked and flipped and punched us over and over. We tried to settle him and he wouldn't have it. He would curl up next to me eventually and fall asleep. This happened about 5 times in the night. We were told that he wakes up a lot at night, but this was intense. He either has night terrors or was grieving so hard. It could be a combination of both, We got very little sleep, but we survived, Once again, we were not shocked by any of this. This is typical behavior of a child losing everything.
This morning was a new day and he woke up happy. He grabbed his snack and juice and ran to the window to open it. We had a wonderful breakfast and the boy chowed down! We walked the city today and even got a Starbucks (Thank you Lord!). He was very partial to mama's frozen green tea frappuccino. He got a chocolate biscotti and sat in his stroller as we walked and got some air. It's hard to keep him tame in the room, although he has played with everything we have brought: balloons, balls, felt board, cars, etc. He wants to go go go! He is uninterested in T.V or anything that involves sitting still.
Learning how to make balloon animals with Baba.
Mama gets lots of kisses
We went to take his passport picture today, which we will get on Friday. Tomorrow we are actually going to the orphanage and we hear we will get to meet the foster family. We are so excited and nervous about this. It could potentially set him back, but we know that we cannot miss an opportunity to learn more about his past. Please pray specifically for him tomorrow. We are enjoying our time with him and he is bonding with us very well! We are so thankful for God answering our prayers in this way.
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