Gotcha Day!

 

 We were supposed to meet  in the lobby at 9:30 to board our bus and head to the civil affairs building to meet Nathan. Our group is so big that they divided us up into two busses. The first bus loaded and were on their way. We were still sitting waiting on our bus to arrive. Our bus was delayed due to heavy traffic and rain. We were told they were 20-30 minutes away. We kept getting reports that they were stuck behind a bus wreck but would be there soon. About an hour later they decided they were stuck and called out a new bus for us. We were on our way around 11am. When we walked in the door I was told by several people from the first bus, that Nathan was there when they arrived. We had our guide Vivian help us find him. She was calling out his Chinese name. He was walking by us as we asked Vivian for help, and I recognized him pretty quickly. He instantly reached out and grabbed my name tag to play with. I talked to him and said hi, and then he was handed to me. You can see from the picture his first reaction was to cry. His nanny handed him some cookies, which he threw across the floor. As soon as he heard the crackle of Robert opening the cookies, the tears were gone.

That is right, we bribed our baby with cookies to be happy. He has the softest little cry. His voice is very deep and hoarse sounding. I'm not complaining about the quiet cry. We are very thankful that his crying is quiet and very short lived.

The nannies rushed us over to get a picture of us at the red curtains. This is where our official adoption certificate picture is taken. They ran  the official over gave him our name and snapped our picture. We had to stand him up to put his face in between ours.  

We traded out and let Robert hold him and he did great. There were no tears as long as we had cookies.

Family photo the boys were in love. Nathan really did fabulous considering he did not know us. His nannies gave us a bag of things we had sent him as well as some of his favorite treats. They also gave us his bottle. That is a really big deal. The families who did not receive their child's bottle said that their child is no longer taking bottles. Considering that Nathan only spits out water from a cup, we would have had struggles getting fluids into him otherwise.

The nanny in black was Nathan's nanny. She really was having a hard time saying goodbye. She asked to hold him again, and I passed him over. Our guide Yisha came up and yelled at her to give him back. I was okay with her saying goodbye, but I guess it is not good for the baby.

Robert was filling out our temporary guardianship papers, while I was putting together the gifts for the orphanage workers and directors. I asked Luke to hold Nathan while I got the gifts. He was so happy to get to help.

 

As soon as we were on the bus, Nathan fussed for a second and then just passed out. He slept the whole way back to the hotel.

The boys wanted to smother him with love. They really are in love with their little brother.

Sweet restful hands

Jon finally gets to hold Nathan. It was so crazy at the civil affairs building, this was his first opportunity to hold him. He let us know that he was ready for his turn.
Nathan's tricks the first day. :
Clap hands, blow kisses, wave bye-bye

 While I spent time in the room getting to know Nathan, Grammy took the big boys swimming, and Robert spent 2 hours filling out passport paperwork for tomorrow.

Swim caps are required here in Zhengzhou. The boys are not fans.