What an experience!!
We awoke early this morning thinking about our little guy and what it will be like to hold him, to love him, to wipe away the tears of fear and pain of leaving the only family he's ever known.
We had breakfast at the hotel... not as amazing as the previous hotel and some of the food was still foreign to us, but we branched out a little and Sarah tried some noodles which were quite good. Then we waited in our room, nervously pacing, readying ourselves for the moment we could get back on the van and go to meet our son. Sarah and I looked at each other and smiled, our hearts swelling with anticipation and chuckling as the van's stereo played the soundtrack from Mama Mia.
Our guide, who calls herself Tracy, went with us into the government building, the WuHan Children Welfare Institute, where we arrived at a lobby area with an attached playroom. It was here where we saw our precious son Matthew for the first time! We immediately noticed him to be very active an inquisitive, moving from person to person and toy to toy with purpose and seeming knowledge of his surroundings. We sense he has a lot of confidence in himself – we saw an older girl push him, and he turned towards her, not crying at all, and gave her a glare that said all it needed to. His smile is electrifying. We met the vice-director of the institute, Chen Gang, who gave us many things for Matthew including a book of his baby pictures, several photographs of various places around the area, a small backpack from his foster mother containing snacks that he enjoys, and a beautiful medallion for Matthew to remind him of the place where he came from. We signed some papers, one of which was an agreement for us to have custody of Matthew for 24 hours and return the next day and decide for sure if we wanted him or not (we almost asked if we could just skip that one, as there is no way we're giving him up!). He cried a couple of times for his “ma-ma”, then climbed into the van with us and contentedly sat in Sarah's lap as we rode through the city with the song “Lay All Your Love On Me” fittingly playing on the van's stereo. Later he sat contentedly in a grocery buggy as we hurried through a Chinese version of Wal-Mart, gathering groceries and a small toy truck for him to play with.
Reality set in for our son when we arrived at our hotel and took him upstairs to our room. For the next two hours the precious guy cried loudly for his mommy and daddy. He took first Sarah's hand, then later my own and pulled us to the doorway, wailing for us to return him to his beloved foster family. At last, after crying himself into exhaustion, he allowed Sarah to lay him on the bed and sing sweet songs to him, putting him to rest. We're sitting here now in our room, a bag of McDonalds food serving as lunch, enjoying watching our son sleep peacefully and thanking God for His amazing gift to us.
Joe
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