Family Day

While everyone else is sleeping, I think that I can finally write with a clear head on my thoughts about Family Day.

There's so much to write about today. Well, our day started super early. Of course it was 3AM and neither one of us could sleep. It seems to be our normal here. I got all of our gifts together for all of the people at Holt. Steve cleaned up the apartment. Then I ironed all our clothes and got everything ready for the big moment.

When we got to Holt we were really early, about 30 minutes early. The lady motioned to us and said that our son was in the other room and to come and see him. I walked in and there he was. It was surreal. The child that I had waited 1 year, 1 month and 3 days to see was standing at my feet. He just looked up at me and went about his business of walking around like he owned the place.

His foster sister's husband was pointing to me and calling me "Omma." He would look up and look and then return to playing.

I was finally able to woo him with our little camera. He took lots of pictures. Mostly of his fingers.

Then we headed upstairs with our social worker, DJ, for our meeting with the foster family. During this meeting it was amazing to me how loved Jax was. His foster mother, both foster sisters, his older foster sister's husband and his foster mother's older sister was there. They had all taken off work to be there to say good bye to him.

The whole meeting time was a blur....I wanted to soak in everything that they had to say about our son and I wanted to watch his every move at the same time. I learned the important stuff like what he likes to eat, how he sleeps, how much he loves to take baths with his toys, but probably the most important things to take away from that meeting were their wishes for Jax in the future.

They want him to be involved in sports, like golf and soccer. They talked about how strong he was and what good balance. They also talked about how smart he is and how he will mimic everything you do and say. They asked about when he will start his formal schooling and they were thankful I was a teacher, so I could teach him many things.

One his first birthday the babies pick from a handful of items and Jax picked the microphone. They hope that means he will be a great speaker some day, maybe a politician, pastor, or professor.

They told us that their were Christian and that he had been attending services at the Presbyterian Church. He has yet to be baptized.

We talked about how we plan on adopting again and the foster mother asked if we would bring Jax back with us and she could see him again. There is no hesitation for us to bring him back to see her. I thought that she had fostered many babies before, but Jax was her first. My heart was breaking for her as tears would stream down her face.

Then it was time to head downstairs for his pre-flight physical which he HATED! We took a few more pictures of Jax's first family and his forever family.

Then it was time to say their last good-byes. Steve and I waited outside while the family had their time with him. After a couple minutes, they came outside. We got in our taxi and we were off.

He cried most of the cab ride back to the hotel. Then when we got back he sat on the sofa and allowed me to comfort him. He would walk behind me so that I could carry him on my back, which really comforted him. We tried getting out the carrier and he wanted NOTHING to do with that.

He cried for about 45 minutes straight. Then he finally cried himself to sleep on the couch with his visor. He did not want that visor off at all!

Once he woke up, he got a little more adventurous. He walked around a bit. Played a little with toys. Let Steve hold him and they played Angry Birds on his phone. Steve was going to run down to the 7-11 in the basement of our hotel and Jax started screaming because he didn't want him to leave. He does not like it if we are not all in the same room together and he really like to tell us where he wants us to sit in relationship to him. I'm usually assigned the couch next to him and Steve the computer chair.

He goes through moments of playing fine and then something will trigger a memory and he starts crying again. Not the screaming crying of the cab, but little whimpers.

He did eat a nice supper of rice wrapped in seaweed and apples. He drank a glass of milk. Then when he started getting tired, he wanted Steve to hold him and Steve rocked him to sleep. Then we all headed to bed together a now family of three!

Please pray for us today, that his little heart begins to heal and that he really starts to trust us. I'm hoping that the weather will cooperate today and it will be nice enough to go outside and play.