Taiwan Day 10 "Gotcha Day"

Today was "Gotcha Day." All in all a bit of a difficult day, but not unexpected. We got up and had breakfast at the hotel. There was Western style breakfast, with scrambled eggs, sausages, ham, etc, and Chinese style with congee and steamed buns and stuff. There was quite a bit of selection.

We headed out to St. Lucy's at about 9:15. I've heard that it's a difficult place to find, but fortunately, we got a cabbie who knew exactly where it was! We went down narrow alleys to turn onto even narrower alleys. I sat in the front seat and it was an umm.. exciting ride. And all of a sudden, we were there! 30 minutes early! Oops! We took a couple pictures outside. Then Jessica, one of the staff there who takes care of all the paperwork and stuff came down to greet us. She invited us to go up to the "green couch room" (it's not really called that, but I've seen pictures of this room from other adoptive families). It's where most families meet their adopted child for the first time. Jessica went through some paperwork with us. Then Mei-Chun, one of the volunteers who speaks English, came by to chat with us. We spoke in combination of Chinese and English so hubby wouldn't feel completely left out. He was pretty nervous, I think, stiff as a board. ;o)

The foster family had to drive for about 1-1/2 hour up to Tainan to meet us. It was the foster mom and dad, grandmother, and the mom's sister. All their eyes were red and damp. They've loved this child for almost 3 years. I know it must have been so difficult for them to see him go. Evan didn't really understand what was going on. Hubby brought out the bribery backpack and showed him all the toys and stuff. It sort of did the trick. He started playing with him. Apparently he really loves cars and stuff with wheels. Oh, and he loved Ferrero Rocher. His foster mom packed a whole bunch of boxes of them. One of our gifts to them (and to the orphanage) was a big box of Ferrero Rocher. What a coincidence, huh? They also brought over a big suitcase and backpack of his stuff. We played in the room for quite a while, took some pictures, asked our questions, then it was time for the foster family to say good-bye. At first they were just going to sneak away or something like that, but the staff and the social workers told them that's not a good idea. They should say good-bye and help him understand that he's supposed to be with us now. It was very very difficult for them, but they did it for us. There was a lot of tears. I felt so bad like I was taking their child away. We thanked them for taking such great care of him for all this time and being so gracious to us. The foster mom had a gold cross chain prepared for Evan. It was very touching. Evan cried quite a bit when they were leaving. The staff helped us distract him. They brought in some boxed lunch for us. None of us really had much of an appetite but we ate a little. Evan ate a little too, but he was easily distracted. 

We left SLC at about 1:00 pm and headed straight out to the HSR station. Evan fell asleep in my arms during the ~20 minute taxi ride, plus the time we got up the platform. Hubby carried him all the way up there. It's about 46 lbs of dead weight. Yikes. He didn't sleep on the train, mostly played. And he cried and whined for his mama (the foster mom). That was a bit rough. This was all so completely new to him, us, the train, the scenery, this whole experience. He was pretty reserved all the way home to my parents house. Once he got there, he let it all loose. He had a major major meltdown. Cried and screamed for about an hour or two (I lost track of time). We didn't really try to distract him or anything. Figured it was something that he was going to need to get out sooner or later. Hubby and I held firm, were there to comfort him if he wanted (which he didn't). He mostly wanted us to put his jacket back on so he could go home or something like that. Eventually, I brought out this block/puzzle thing which got his interest. He stopped crying then and was ready to play again. Hubby, Sis, and I played with him for a while. But every so often, he would remember and go over by the window and call for mama. For a while I thought it might be a good idea to stay at my parents for tonight since he was getting more familiar with the surroundings, but hubby and I decided it was best to go to the hotel that we had reserved so he gets used to the idea of just the two of us caring for him. And also, if there were any meltdowns (on our parts also), it wouldn't be witnessed by anybody we know. Not that I wasn't worried about disturbing our hotel neighbors, but I was going to take that chance. 

We had a bite to eat and Evan was in a pretty good mood. We headed over to the hotel (very close). Sis came over to help out a bit. Gosh, I don't know what I would've done without her today, carrying stuff for us, paying the cab when my hands were full, taking pictures, helping and playing with Evan to put him at ease, bringing us a big jug of water at the hotel. Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

Our hotel room has this gigantic jacuzzi tub. We fill it up and gave him his bath. We played in the tub for a while. Then we put him in his new PJs, the Cars ones from H2O. Thanks, H2O! It fits perfectly! :o) He followed me and watched me like a hawk while I was brushing my teeth and washing my face. Weird, but I just explained what I was doing. We thought we would be in for a rough night tonight and were mentally prepared. When I mentioned bedtime, Evan laid himself down on the floor,  fussed a bit and cried for his mama. I covered him up with a warm blanket to let him cry it out some. It didn't last too long. Soon he was drowsy enough for hubby to put him in bed. Now they're both snoring away. Phew!

Oh, we learned that Evan really likes Sponge Bob (who speaks Mandarin here in Taiwan). So I think we'll be buying some Sponge Bob stuff now.