Gotcha Day - Day 7

Tuesday we got up, had breakfast and did some shopping before we were able to go back to the Transition House to pick up our kids. Shopping was a really fun experience. It was very cool to be out in the streets with all the people and crazy traffic. It was a very surreal feeling walking around shopping in a third world country all the way on the other side of the world knowing that in a few short hours we'd have our son in our arms and life would never be the same. Only God could have planned this!

After shopping we headed back to the hotel to get things ready for going back to the Transition House to take donations, care packages and pick up our little ones.
I was so nervous; going over everything a million times, making sure we had everything for Bereket as well as all of the donations and care packages...we had 7 beautiful kids to take packages to and I didn't want to forget anything.
When we got to the Transition House we got busy right away with the care packages. What a blessing it was to take these kids a gift from their parents who were waiting so anxiously to bring them home and praying over them everyday. They were all so sweet and humble and just precious. We took pictues of them and stamped their hands and feet on cards for their parents back home.

Once everyone was done with care packages they brought our little ones to us again. This was it, Bereket was with us...for good! We got to change his clothes and feed him and spend some time with him there before we said goodbye.













All of the nannies were so sweet and they hugged and kissed all of the kids as we were getting ready to go. It was a bittersweet time. You could tell they really cared for our kids and we were so thankful for that. We were so happy to have our kids and anxious to get home with them but at the same time you mourn the fact that these kids have already been through so much and are being taken from their home by these strangers who look, smell and sound so different. They're whole world is being rocked and you just put your trust in Christ that He's gonna make it all okay for them. He's gonna get them, and us, through this transition by His grace alone. Praise God that He is who He says He is! He can do all things and is faithful in His promises!

When it as time to go we all got in the vans and we were thinking," This is really it, here we go! We're really parents of this little guy and we have to take care of him now. OH MY GOSH!!!!!" I couldn't believe the sweet little sleeping boy in my arms was really here, with us, and we were taking him home!

We stopped to visit the second Transition Home which is where the older kids stayed until their parents came to get them. It was fun to see all the kids and play with them for a bit.

Later we went out to eat and then back to the hotel to rest. We really needed some rest too, our emotions were running like mad and we had just been going and going and wanted some time to sit and let all of this sink in. Bereket took a nap in his crib and we talked for awhile about everything that had happened over the past couple of days.

We met up with the other families for dinner at the hotel and just kind of hung around for the rest of the evening learning our new little boy. We gave him his first bath and played with him until bedtime. We all crashed early because we were so tired.