Gotcha Day!

If you read this blog from home after your day's work is done... you will want to read the previous blog to explain how it is we got here!  Trust me, we aren't quite sure ourselves but it was very quick and wonderfully amazing and as I type this, we have a beautiful little Jadon fast asleep on our bed!

Disclaimer.  We are not allowed to post pics of him until he is officially ours.  That happens tomorrow at the official Giving and Receiving Ceremony.  So check back tomorrow morning for pictures!

We took a cab over to the orphanage just at the beginning of rush hour.  The orphanage is in another district and there is much more poverty and a higher density of living in that area.  When we got to the orphanage, we were greeted by Loan, the worker for our Canadian agency.  She is a lovely woman and very warm and helpful.  We were then brought into the Director's office where the Director of the orphanage greeted us and hosted us with a yummy snack of tangerines, homemade rice cakes, yucca and chocopies.  We chatted as we waited for our little Jadon to be brought down.

The orphanage has a climbing structure and slide inside

Lots of kid friendly decorations

A row of riding toys.  We have a video of Jadon putting on a show with one of these

Finally the door opened and in came a nanny carrying the most adorable little boy decked out in the cutest outfit, matching shoes and hat, with wide eyes full of questions.  He was given to Sara and he started to cry.  We were assured that this was common for the child to cry because of the unknown, but that eventually he would warm up to us and his real personality would come out.  Having gone through hours of crying and significant grieving with Li Lin at this point of the journey, we were prepared!  Jadon however seems relatively laid back.  He whimpered for a few minutes then resigned himself to being carried by his new mama.

 We were then brought upstairs where we were shown the room that Jadon lived in for most of his life.  We saw his own crib, as well as the many nannies that cared for him.  There were many other little ones in the room. 

The room where Jadon lived and some of the nannies who cared for him

This was Jadon's crib and his near neighbours

Though Jadon was older than most, he stayed in this room with the younger ones to receive more hands on care because he was frequently ill with his pneumonias and following up his heart surgery.  As we saw these dedicated nannies holding and caring for so many little ones, our hearts were full of thanksgiving for the care they had given Jadon.  Without them, he would not have survived this long!  We truly feel that he was well loved and cared for.  Some of the nannies themselves had been orphans who were cared for here at Go Vap, and now work full time caring for others!

Some of the dedicated nannies that cared for Jadon, and some of Jadon's room mates

Sara with the head nanny of Jadon's room

The kids had a blast interacting with the little children.  They were all so sweet and wonderful!  Logan stayed out of the room to make sure he would not pass on his bug to these susceptible children.  It was very difficult for him as he has a very tender heart and would have loved to interact with these little ones.

Hudson getting a smile from yet another little orphan.  He just went from crib to crib getting them all smiling!

Rykauna thought this little guy was a blast and cuddled with him as she walked around

This little girl crawled around and followed Li Lin wherever she went

Some of the older orphans came to say hello as we were leaving

Eventually it was time to go.  The location of the orphanage is very busy and we had to wait nearly 10 minutes until we could flag a cab.  Jadon sat in Sara's arms with eyes wide open taking everything in.  He had not been out of the orphanage much at all.  He was great all the way home and suffered in silence as we gave him a scabies treatment - rubbed him down with some Nix and bundled him up in a one piece pj.  So that he does not suck his fingers, we put socks on his hands.  He looked up quizzically but without complaint.  He then was a allowed to roam around on the floor and interact with the kids.  We quickly saw his smile light up his face as he and Li Lin and Rykauna banged around and made some noise with empty water bottles and Pringle cans!

We gave him a bottle at bed time and Sara lay with him.  He was moving around a bit so she laid him on her chest and he cuddled right up and fell asleep almost immediately.  As Sara was tucking in Li Lin a little while later, Li Lin looked up at Sara and said "Mommy, thank-you for adopting me a little brother!"  Love truly does multiply here!