Day 4--GOTCHA DAY!!!

How on earth do we begin to describe this day???

Up before 5:30 (couldn't sleep). In the bus by 6 AM. On the plane at 7:30 AM. Arrive in Guangzhou at 11 AM. At the hotel by noon. Leave at 2 to meet the children. We were all pretty nervous, scared, excited, anxious, etc. at this point. All of that seems like a blur. What happened next was amazing.

When we arrived at the Civil Affairs office Amy had us look at our paperwork first to be sure that everything was in order. While Andrew and Alan looked over these items carefully in a room where several other families were waiting, a woman walked in with a young boy. Ruth caught his eye and he saw her with a slight hint of recognition. When the woman and the boy returned, we were called up to meet our son and brother. After about 15 seconds of suspense, the woman with Jadon pointed to Ruth and Jadon said with a grin, "Mama." Things were off and running. He especially enjoyed the matchbox car we brought and spent quite a bit of time sending it back and forth with Andrew. The next exciting toy was Kirsten's camera. He took several pictures (as you can see).

We had a chance to speak with his caregivers and learned several things. 1) He is a very active boy. They laughed and said that he was sometimes naughty. 2) He likes to eat--especially meat and fruit (apples). 3) He has known about the adoption for about 3 months and obviously has seen the picture. He knows who Kirsten is when he sees the picture that we posted in January. He speaks a little bit of English and obviously understands more.

A couple of prayer requests: 1) Jadon has a cough and is obviously not feeling his best. Pray that he will get well quickly and that the rest of us don't pick this up from him (especially Andrew who will share a bed with him while we are here.) 2) We want to learn to communicate with him well. Pray that we would pick up on his expressions and efforts to communicate with us and that we would do a good job communicating with him as well. 3) Pray for Kirsten (man do we miss her) since she can't be here in person.

Andrew has done a great job. What a fantastic big brother!!

Thanks to so many for the prayer that has been lifted on our behalf. God is good and his hand in this is obvious to all of us.