~*~*~GOTCHA DAY~*~*~ Tuesday, Aug. 17th.

This was a day of many "lasts" and many "firsts"...a day of joy and happiness and also sadness...a day of freedom, hope and a future. If Isaiah only knew how big today actually was...how lucky and blessed he is...and NOT because he is getting OUR family but because he is getting A family. What we are doing I don't consider to be above and beyond the "call of duty" especially when I meet other families and witness what they are doing. While here we meet 3 families from Reece's Rainbow who all have big families. The one from South Dakota has 6 bio kids (all healthy and no Ds)...they adopted a child with Ds last year and are now in their final stages of bringing home another child with Ds and one with a different chromosomal anomaly...for a total of 9 children with their oldest being 13 years old. Another family has 9 bio's, including a 3 year old with Ds, and they are bringing home two more boys with Ds...making that a total of 11 children with their oldest being 19 years old. And a 3rd family we met has 8 bios, all healthy, and they are bringing home two boys with Ds making that 10 children. This family has friends who have children with Ds and they grew to love them and decided to follow God's calling. They are all so inspiring.

Back to Isaiah...we met a translator at the orphanage at 4pm. Austin and I were a little early but we went inside anyway. The nannies gave us some strange looks. I think they were looks of "are you really here to take Ilya already". There were no English speaking ones there at the time. I said we were there to take Isaiah home. I think we saw looks of sadness. One took Isaiah to the back room...bathroom...and brought him back with a clean diaper on. I took Isaiah and we got him dressed...in OUR clothes. It was SO hot in there and I wanted to leave. The translator said they want to feed him first...better for him and us...they said. One of our favorites took him and fed him. The next minutes were very hard and both Austin and I. We were fighting back tears watching the nanny feed Isaiah one last time...watching all 9 of the other kids in their pens, with no toys, all lined up watching us. I've read stories of orphans and how they talk about "when is MY day coming". That is exactly what we were thinking they were thinking. I asked the nanny who fed him if this was a "happy day" or "sad day". She quietly said "happy day" but translator also said they have known him in this groupa since he was two months old so they will also miss him but they are more happy because they know where he would go if no one adopted him...the mental institution where he would most likely not live very long.


Walking through the front door to orphanage and the door to Isaiah's groupa...one..last..time.


Isaiah being held by his nanny one last time.



Isaiah getting dressed by his new mommy for the FIRST time.




One last meal in orphanage.



Austin and I were "arguing" over who got to carry him through the doors. Austin won and he was even the one who took Isaiah from the nannies arms. It felt like a dream. Isaiah even seemed a bit sad while this was all going on...not smiling at all. I wonder how long he will have the memories of the only "family" he knew up until that day.




Out the front door...and never to return...ever. 147 million orphans minus one.


Moms gets a turn, after all I told Austin I kind of deserve a little bit of it after all the tears, all the convincing, all the prayers, all the waiting, all the paperwork, all the redo's of paperwork, all the more tears, all the heartache, and all the "labor pains" that I went through...and oh, was it ever so sweet.


Calling dad on the phone telling him we are about to leave the orphanage gates.


We walked back to our apartment...finished packing...ate supper...said goodbye to our landlady and her daughter...and off in the taxi to go to the train station.



It is SO hot in the train while we are waiting for it to take off. We always take first class which has air conditioning but it doesn't kick in until about 5-10 minutes into the ride. Isaiah was getting really cranky. He is just like his mama...does NOT like being hot. Here he is HAPPY once it started cooling down.

Isaiah slept very well on the train. Austin slept with him part of the night. I didn't get much sleep because I wanted Isaiah to be comfortable so I had just small parts of the bed to fit into. It was worth him getting a good nights sleep. He woke up very happy.



I will update about the rest of our Tuesday and also Wednesday another time. Those who blog and upload pictures know how longs this takes. I gotta hit the pillow.