Well despite a serious lack of sleep Scott and I both were up at 5am (mostly due to the barking dogs!) but quickly realized this is the day we had been waiting for….today we are meeting our son! We had breakfast with the other families and then we all piled in the car to head to Toukoul Orphanage. The ride over I felt everything from excitement to nervousness…. I kept thinking what if I don’t recognize him? All of the pictures that we received of him were not very good and kinda blurry so I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to pick him out of a group. Fortunately, they don’t make you walk into a room full of kids and try and find your child…. they bring them out to you :) We stood outside the main office frozen with anticipation…. excited to see our son. And then there he was…all bundled up with a serious expression on his face. We call it his “who the heck are you” face. We scooped him up and gave him hugs and kisses, I thought I would be more emotional, but I was in shock so I just kept saying hi and rubbing his back. After that we loaded all the babies in the car and headed back to the guesthouse for some playtime. We were informed by the veteran families that his diaper was a cloth rag wrapped in plastic, so a diaper change was the first thing we on the agenda…that can’t be comfortable for the kids! Then we spread out a blanket and sat on the floor with all the kids and enjoyed an afternoon playing and getting to know our son. Once he got more comfortable he would give a little smile or interact with us, which is really good for kids who are in his situation. We fed him lunch and gave him a nap, and then it was time to take him back to Toukoul. We decided that it would be better for him to stay there for a few more days and get to know us slowly while still in an environment that he is used to. So we took him back, it was sad to let him go but also kinda nice, because by this point we were on a serious emotional overload and we needed to rest.
The famous blue Toukoul gate.
Our first meeting
Fast asleep from the car ride!
His first feeding with us.
2 comments:
He is so precious. The last picture of your 2 boys is adorable.
What an amazing expeirence, you guys are awesome! I love reading about your journey and seeing the great pictures.
Post a Comment