After a mostly sleepless night, I was up by 6:00 a.m. and headed for the shower. We thankfully had noodles that the kids could eat in the room for breakfast since the buffet in our hotel left a lot to be desired. The butterflies in my stomach took away my desire for food and I couldn’t help but think that this was similar to the active stages of labor where if I had been actually giving birth, the nurses wouldn’t want me eating anyway.

As we arrived with our guides at the Civil Affairs office in Wuhan and climbed the stairs to the next floor, Taylor—our assigned videographer for the adoption-- asked if he should have the camera on and ready. I told him he probably wouldn't need to videotape anything until we got to the room where we were going, but when we hit the top of the staircase, there was Caleb walking with his two orphanage directors. My heart just started pounding as we all exclaimed, "There he is!"



I know I am biased, but he is just the cutest kid in the world! None of the pictures we had previously seen do him justice, as he has the most impish grin and a personality to match. His orphanage directors said that he was a favorite among the children and I can see why. Within five minutes of meeting him, he had Taylor’s I-pod in his ears and was shooting pictures with our digital camera.

Today was not the official adoption registration, but rather an opportunity for our family to take guardianship of Caleb for 24 hours. This is done so that parents might have a chance to be with their child and get to know them before the adoption process is officially started. Unfortunately, this has also been the time period where some parents have chosen to back out of their adoption when their child had significant delays or more severe special needs than they had counted on. This is not said in judgment, because only the adoptive parents know what they are willing and able to handle when it comes to special needs, but on occasion, parents have also backed out because their child was more delayed than they counted on.

Julie, on the Parenting Children with Special Needs blog posted an Open Letter from Amy Eldridge discussing this very issue. It is a letter I highly recommend all pre-adoptive parents read.

Caleb is from Yichang, which is in the Hubei Province of China, and is where the Three Gorges Dam is being built. There has been much controversy surrounding the dam as it will provide much needed electricity and prevent future flooding downstream, but will also submerge factories and villages under water and displace more than 1.3 million people while having a huge impact on the environment as well. All controversy aside, the dam has put Yichang on the map so to speak, and the directors gave us a crystal with a laser carving of the dam as a remembrance of Yichang.

After exchanging gifts, we said goodbye, knowing we would see them again tomorrow when we actually process the adoption paperwork. I feared Caleb would cry or cling to the only two people he knew well in the entire room, but he said goodbye without as much as a backward glance. He is not shy at all, and is also very affectionate. He doesn’t hesitate taking older siblings’ hands when we are walking down the street together, and I am so glad that his siblings came along on this trip because he took to Alyssa and Taylor like a fish takes to water.

Continued...