However, my mom was right…
We arrived at the Government Official Office at about 10 am. We were in a fairly small room in the back of the building that opened to a private parking lot. As we entered, there were already families that had arrived from another agency that were meeting their children. A feeling of emotions came over me in that moment. I tried to hold back tears as I looked around a room that miracles were taking place before our eyes. Families were being united for the first time. And I got to witness, and share in their joy. It was nothing short of amazing and beautiful and what this world should be about, pure unconditional love.
Shortly after, the first van of children from our CCAI group arrived….one by one. There were three children coming from Kai’s orphanage, so we knew we were waiting for a van, not a car. And children kept coming, and we kept watching. We’d share in joy of others family, pace, play with Kainan, cry… and then we stated to get impatient. I had a feeling so tight in my chest, and though we knew they were on their way, the nerves were intense. I checked my phone clock at 11:15 am and they still had not arrived. We were the last three families waiting… and then, I saw a van come around the corner, I yelled for the other three families and jumped up and down like I was certain it was them…and then nothing…”where did that van go?”, and a moment later, it turned into the back parking lot were we were looking out…and it was our children… Kai was the second child out of the van, I watched intensely as they carried him out of the van, up the steps to the room we were to meet him in, and reached my arms for him saying “mama, mama.” I then realized he had to go inside first and get confirmation from our CCAI rep that I was in fact Dang Can Lan’s mama. He then sat him down on the floor and Jason, Kainan and I all came close, but didn’t touch him (boy did that take will power). I wanted to give him some time. He was quite. He didn’t cry. He didn’t have much expression at all. He just stared at us. Kainan reached out and handed him a dum dum sucker, which he took, and held tightly, never taking a lick, just held. I then slowly gestured him towards me. He came to me, and then sat on my lap. We all just sat on the floor together…as a family. I then picked him up…and that was that, he was pretty content. Still looked around trying to take in all that was going on. We gave him some snacks, which he held, didn’t eat, but didn’t let go. We walked around the humid and extremely warm room and waited for our turn to get our required pictures taken. Jason went and did the required paperwork, and then Kai and I went and I signed. At one point, I tried to hand him off to Jason, and he cried… but when he came back to me, he calmed down quickly. It was all magical and beautiful and he is perfect.
The nanny from his orphanage did come over and gave us back all the books that we had sent in his care package and the two disposable cameras that had all the photos used…nothing else was returned, but we somewhat expected that, and at least the donations went to the kids that need them most…mom and dad, he’ll need some new Cardinal’s gear. We haven’t found a place to get the photos developed yet, but I was hoping to do that on a day we had time to lounge around.
We made it back to our hotel a little after noon, and decided to give a go at going out to eat at a neighboring hotel. Both boys were GREAT! Kai had been pretty quite, and then he came alive. He wanted food, he had an opinion, he played with the kid forks I brought, and started playing games. He was also memorized a bit by the World Cup…that’s my boy! We then came back to our room, and Jason had to go do more paperwork. Kathy and I played with the boys. Kai would run around the room, but when I held out my arms, he’d run to me and sit in my lap. When Jason returned, I had to go up and sign some paperwork too… part of signing, we had to fingerprint us, and get Kai’s hand and foot print. While we were at it we got Kainan and Kai’s handprints on the same page. After all the events of the day, we decided to head back to the room and order room service. We got the boys pjs on and just played a bit. When the food arrived we kinda eat in shifts. I feed Kai congee, plain porridge, which is what he’s use to. I had let him use the spoon at the restaurant; I was a little less brave in our hotel room over carpet and little to clean up the mess with. He pretty much eats anything you put in front of him, so I’m learning I have to give him just a little at a time. Kainan eat fruit and french fries (room service’s menu is much more western, thus much more appealing.) We also prepared a bottle with the formula we were told Kai was use to drinking before bedtime. He refused it. We aren’t sure if it reminded him of the orphanage, or we didn’t prepare it right.
Kai has some sores on his eyebrows – we’re not sure if it’s dry skin or something else, but we can tell it bothers him. That evening Kainan fell asleep at 6:30 pm exhausted from his new role as big brother. Jas and I played with Kai for awhile on the floor. Kainan had taught Kai how to play swords, so that’s a favorite game already. He also happens to love climbing in and out of the crib the hotel provided us…sleeping in it has not been a popular choice… Mama knew this would be the case, but we just went with it when they insisted on bringing it in.
Time for bed…I rubbed Kai’s eyebrows and head until he feel asleep in my arms. When I looked over all three of my boys were out for the night. I crawled out of bed and grabbed my dinner that was still in the meal warmer cart that room service brought up. Grilled chicken and white rice…even a tad cold it tasted great!
Thanks for following along, all our love, the Capps.
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