Gotcha day number 4

I can't post from China right now. But I can send an email to my amazing hubby and have him do it!!! 

Pictures maybe sparse until I can get an internet connection again. Sorry guys. 

Yesterday was 4 for 4 in the department of amazing gotcha days. Nathan was nervous and quiet. It's awkward when you are a teenager. But he is SOOOOO sweet! And he is teeny tiny like we thought. I want to smother him with mom kisses but I restrained myself. 

The social worker told us before he arrived how anxious he had been for me to come. She said he is so ready to go to America and have his own family. Squeezy heart!

The first thing he did after we met was present me with a gift. He proudly told me through the translator he has gifts for the whole family. He showed me Brad's gift too and I explained why dad wasn't here. 

Then he proceeded to show me everything he brought with him. He had two backpacks full. He has his own tablet. I was not thrilled at first but it turns out it doesn't have any games or apps on it. It was used for school and he was really good about not having it out yesterday. I did hear him play a little music on it while I was getting ready for bed. But he was super engaged with me, not the tablet, all day. 

The orphanage provided the most amazing gifts to me. They made him a beautiful photo book of pictures from the orphanage and pictures from when he was little. It's a full blown professional digital scrapbook. I also received several hard-copy photos from when he was in preschool. The cutest picture is his very first photo in the orphanage. He was a huge chubby chunker chunk! Not sure how he has become such a bean pole but man he was he a chubby baby. 

I was also given the best information I have ever seen from an orphanage in a 4 page printout of questions and answers. Every question I had prepared to ask was already answered in the packet. They even translated a note from him to me into English in the packet. 

On top of all of that amazing valuable information they gave us a b-e-a-u-tiful personalized stamp with Nathan's Chinese name. It has a hand carved goat on the top and a red ink pad. It is gorgeous. 

There was a second family with us picking up a little 3 year old from Nathan's same orphanage. He did great until we all started to leave together. He screamed for about 10 minutes. But that was the only tiny hiccup of the day. And it wasn't even my kid! 

Nathan and I played the day away together. We finished the puzzle. We played card games. We played multiplayer games on the iPad. We walked to lunch and dinner together. And we watched Tarzan in mandarin together. It was an amazing day!!

The other adopting family also has one parent home and one in China.  They are also picking up two children. And they will have a total of 7 after these two adoptions. We are not the only crazy people out there! The dad and two teenage daughters are here and they had already picked up their 13 year old girl last week. It was nice to have some friends for the day.