Gotcha Day

Our flight was early today (8:50) and went smoothly. We landed in what seemed like the "tropics" as it was much warmer (although Beijing was unseasonably warm while we were there) and you could feel some humidity in the air, plus there were trees with leaves and flowers blooming too. (Hopefully the cold will all be gone by the time we get back home!) Our guide brought us to our hotel and explained the day to us...we'd be getting HuiYi around 4 pm. So...we needed to get everything in order. Our guide got us a taxi and we went to get some groceries at what could be considered the "Guiyang Wal**mrt" - it had everything (and our guide is a young man who obviously doesn't do the grocery shopping;)

This afternoon we were busy setting up our little "house" for the next 10 days and trying not to get to nervous about what is about to happen.

4:00....we go down to the lobby and there sits this beautiful smiling little girl with a "grandma & grandpa", our guide and an adoption official. We were totally shocked to find out that Megan has been living with a foster family for the past 3 years, we knew she had been with a foster family after her heart surgery but were not aware she still was. This was really great news as she has received excellent care!! But, it has also made the transition that much harder and we weren't fully prepared for that. The foster mom had so much to tell me that I could hardly take it all in, there were so many people all crammed into our hotel room (which is fairly large but still)...yes, we were in our hotel room. The hotel did not have a meeting room for us and later we found out that this meeting was to take place off site at the Civil Affairs building. Well, it didn't and I think that may be an extra part of Megan's grieving(more on that later). So...grandma is talking and giving us all kinds of "instructions", Megan is playing and is quite friendly with us....all sorts of "officials" are talking and asking us questions....yikes. God has answered a huge prayer of mine....that we would recieve some information and photos about Megan's early years! Praise God! One of the first things "grandma" did was hand me a black bag and inside was a baggie with a personal letter and dozens of photos. She didn't want me to open it then but when I did I was overjoyed at the treasure she had given us and Megan. We also learned that "grandma" believes in Jesus and is a Christian - how incredibly awesome is that!!! She did however indicate that she had not talked to Megan about Christ but you know for sure that grandma has been praying for her! What another blessing to this mom's heart! "Grandma" & "Grandpa" left quietly without much notice...they had said their goodbyes and such and Megan did really well. We had more discussions with the orphange and adoption officials and played ball together. It wasn't until we started getting ready for bed that she realized what has happened and the tears started flowing. It just broke our hearts that the only thing we could do for her was to hold her and love on her....nothing could make the pain go away. She cried for about two hours and then fell asleep next to me in bed. She slept okay but was still weepy in her sleep even. It will be a process of grieving and we pray that God would speak to her little heart and help her to know that she is with her forever family.

Her smile is precious and infectious...her laugh is deep...she is tiny and determined...she is friendly and yet reserved...she knows what she likes and knows when she wants things...she is our daughter!

PS...

I'm posting this on Thursday night at about 10:30 Guiyang time...so first our computer is set to home time and will post the time according to Zeeland...second...I can't seem to get photos to load tonight and I'm tired of fighting with the computer...so I'll try tomorrow.

I'm tired and heading to bed...I know I'm behind on sharing what's going on as there has been lots going on...appointments and officials....not being able to speak much Chinese and NO one speaks English here at our hotel so that's a challenge....anyway...more later. Thanks for all your comments we did read them today.

Blessings to all back home!