Orphan NO MORE! He's a Porter!!!

Gao Wen Qi, Status: abandoned orphan  Caleb David Bao Porter, Status: Treasured Son!!!

He is ours! We are officially his parents! It is completely surreal to think about and wrap my brain around it all!

Monday morning we woke up early, skyped our kids back home and ate the breakfast buffet. We hadn't slept all that well despite our best efforts (and medications!). After we got cleaned up we ventured out to the store for supplies with our guide and the other couples here with us for adoption. We walked several blocks to a mall. Malls in China are nothing like malls at home. They are completely vertical. There are countless floors and escalators that just go up forever! Another family in our group bought a stroller and some toys and then we went to the supermarket. The grocery store was in the basement of another similar shopping center/mall with many floors and many different types of shops. We got some peanut butter, jelly, bread and a few snacks for the room so we wouldn't have to eat out every single meal. We made it back to the hotel with about half an hour before we were to meet in the hotel lobby for our "gotcha." We put our purchases away, and made sure our diaper bag was prepared and then we met in our room with the other couples for a prayer time before we went down to the lobby. I cannot overstate how wonderful it is to have other American like minded friends here with us on this journey! God has really blessed us with our travel companions!

We got down to the lobby and our guide was waiting for us. We all sat down and we were all so nervous. The orphanage van was running a few minutes late, so we waited nervously for a few minutes. We all had suckers or treats of some sort ready to offer our children. Often, the children are very scared at gotcha. They can't comprehend what is going on! They haven't spent months or years preparing as the parents have and to them it must feel like an alien abduction! They are handed over to strangers who look, smell, sound and act differently than anything they've ever known! We were all ready to offer some treats to ease their fears and soothe them.

The van pulled up outside and we all got to our feet. After that, all I remember is seeing Caleb holding the hand of a nanny walking towards us. We walked toward him and his nanny said his Chinese name and he reached up for us! We swooped him into our arms and hugged his neck! We spent the next few minutes huddled together talking to him and loving on him.

 We quickly learned that he loves to be active and walking around. We took turns walking around with him while the other was filling out paper work. The lady that brought the children from the orphanage gave me a copy of his "finding ad" and a cd full of pictures of him from the time that he was found abandoned and brought into the orphanage up through the present! These items are such treasures to me as I didn't get to be there for the first 20 months of his life, so anything I can get from that time is so valuable. (When an orphan is found abandoned in China, an ad with the child's picture and where he/she was found is run in the local newspaper to give the birth parents an opportunity to come forward and claim the child).

 We had twenty four hours of time with him before the official adoption, known as the integration period. We took him up to our room and played with him. He is so playful! He loves to laugh and play and get into everything! We spent some time outside blowing bubbles and some time inside playing with some toys we brought. Overall he did very well. He started to get tired and we tried to get him to relax enough to fall asleep on one of us but he was fighting it. We tried putting him in the crib and he seemed very afraid, so we got him out and played a bit more. Eventually he melted down. I'm sure he was exhausted physically and emotionally from all the change. He cried and screamed and didn't want to be touched at all. We picked him up and put him in the crib and sat on the floor on either side of him and sang to him and he cried for maybe a minute before he was sound asleep. He slept about 45 minutes. He woke up crying, but quickly calmed and then was back to his playful, active, happy self.

We went to dinner at the hotel restaurant with one of the other families here. Both the babies ate like there was no tomorrow. That is very common among kids who have been in orphanages. Caleb wants to have food with him at all times. We let him carry around a Gerber Puff in each hand pretty much all day. Sometimes these kids haven't had enough to eat (though Caleb doesn't look like he's missed too many meals!) and it takes them awhile to trust their new parents and to learn that they will always be fed. It is sad, but we will love him through it and allow him to know that the food is there as he learns to trust us.

 After dinner we gave him a bath. We weren't sure how this would go as we have heard lots of kids are afraid of baths at first. Well, he LOVED it! In fact, he did NOT want to get out! He even stuck his face in the water and blew bubbles! It was so cute! It was fantastic to get him clean and smelling good. He had not been bathed in awhile. We finally made him get out when the water had turned cold and his skin was super pruned.

 The orphanage said he was still taking bottles, but so far he won't take one for us. I don't know if he doesn't like the American formula or if he is just getting enough at mealtime and doesn't need the nutrition or why he isn't interested. I offered him a bottle after his bath but he refused it, so we brushed his teeth and got him all ready for bed. This time he let me sing him to sleep in my arms! It was awesome! I laid him down and he slept in his crib for about 3 hours and then at about 11:30 he woke up crying. I picked him up and cuddled him close and he fell back to sleep. This time, however when I tried to lay him back down he cried again. He seemed scared, so we put him in bed with us and he slept there till about 4:45 this morning at which time he was up and ready for the day, full of energy.

We skyped the kids at home and ate the breakfast buffet again and then this morning, we went to a meeting room here in the hotel and completed the adoption. A civil affairs officer and some notaries came and we did a bunch of paper work and an interview and he officially became our son. Caleb fell asleep on me during all the paperwork. (That is what happens when one wakes up at the ungodly hour that he did!!)

We played and ate lunch and now he is napping.


Please keep us in your prayers as we continue to get to know him and earn his trust. He will grieve the loss of all that he has known and we have seen glimpses of that already. Also, both Steve and I are desperately missing Jasmine and Joshua. We really don't know how we will possibly survive until we see them again...it feels so far away! Please pray that we can move past this homesickness so that we can be our very best for Caleb in this most tender time!! We love and appreciate all of you and we can't wait to be home as a family!!