Gotcha Day

What a day.  I am not sure that words can even express the feelings of the day.  Our meeting with Vivian was at 1:00pm so we decided to go to Insa-Dong (a market area) for the morning and walk around.  It was a very relaxing morning and we enjoyed browsing through various shops.  We met two other families that had just picked up their adopted children.  One of them is from Minnesota and they are on our same flight home on Sunday! 

Then it was off to our meeting with Vivian.  We met at 1:00pm and played with her in one of the meeting rooms.  Then we were instructed to go down to the lobby where the president of the ESWS met us and the foster family and said a blessing over Vivian.  Then we were ushered to the van.  We got in and Vivian was handed to us and the door closed.

The next 45 minutes were the most difficult.  Hearing her cry and scream in anguish tore my heart with each passing minute.  It was what she needed to do to grieve but there was nothing we could do to comfort her. 

When we arrived at the hotel, she calmed down a little, but was still very upset.  We gave her space and waited. 

While it may not be very poetic, the turning point was when Vivian had a bowel movement.  She sat in the bathroom for a very long time while we waited patiently for her to finish.  We kept asking if she was done and she would shake her head no.  Finally, she grabbed some toilet paper and handed it to Matt.  Then she allowed us to put on her pull-up and for the first time in 2 days, she let me pick her up. 

The hours since that have been filled with getting to know each other.  We are learning more about her personality and she is quite spunky and independent!  She has taken to Sylvia and they go everywhere together.  Their relationship has started and we pray that it will only grow stronger with each passing day.

We were able to go out of the hotel for dinner and we found out that Levi has met his match!  Vivian can eat!  She is not picky at all and ate everything we put in front of her and lots of it!

Today was a rollercoaster of emotion from the heartache of hearing her cry all the way to the hotel to the pure joy of hearing her laugh for the first time. 

Soon we will be going to bed.  We know that this will be a difficult time for her and we continue to pray that she will be comforted that we are now family.

Continue to pray for us as we continue the path of transition.  We know that this is not easy on her and we are trying to comfort her with what we think she needs.  The language is a bit of a challenge, but Krista's brain is getting a workout trying to remember as much Korean as possible to communicate at a 2 year old level!

Thank you all for your support.  We do appreciate it, even from the other side of the world.