Happy Gotcha Day, Louis!

We had sent an album of photos of us to Louis, of course. And we had numerous copies of photos of our little boy plastered everywhere.

 

But although you can--and do--fall in love with a photo, meeting in person is completely different.

The morning of the day we met Louis his foster mother dressed him in a handsome new outfit. Then Louis took a four-hour car ride to Changsha to meet us. While our son was stuck in traffic, we sat on wooden benches watching other children meet their forever families. There were many tears--some of them ours--especially as we watched our newest friends--two couples on the same adoption journey--greet their beautiful daughters. The room started emptying as families left to begin their lives together. We waited. And waited. And waited.

Then he walked into the room.



The other children had been accompanied by caregivers who stayed and helped them with the initial transition. A woman was with Louis, but she didn't stay long. She leaned down and told him gently in Chinese that we were his Mama and Baba. Then she walked away. We learned later that another child from his affiliated orphanage had been taken to the hospital and the staff had to leave suddenly. At the time, I barely noticed she had left, except that I was worried for Louis, standing there all alone.

He was so brave. He looked at us, hiding some of the time behind one hand.


He accepted the toy airplane we gave him--and one Cheerio. He listened to us speak in unfamiliar words. He let us hold him.

 

Then we were hurried out of the room so the office could close. Louis fell asleep sitting on John's lap in the van on the way back, and a very proud father carried him into our hotel.



That night we started getting to know one another.


We fed each other Cheerios. We poked at the congee we ordered through room service. "All Chinese children love congee," we were told. Not Louis.

John and I took turns holding him. When it was time to go to sleep, he was sad. We watched Chinese music videos and I sang "Toora Loora Loora" and every other lullaby I knew. John walked Louis around and around the hallways. He taught Louis to hit the Christmas decorations hanging from the hall ceiling and brought out the first smile from our son.

When Louis finally fell asleep in my arms and I rolled him onto the bed to sleep between us, I knew everything would be OK. I just didn't know how completely wonderful being Louis's mother would be.

During our two weeks in China, we discovered so much about our boy.

He loved his food.



He loved his thumb.


He loved to smile.



He loved having messy hands--especially when he got to place an inky red hand print on the document to finalize his adoption.



He thought Baba was hilarious.

 He loved to play.

 He loved stuffed animals.

He loved to share things (well, non-food items) with people.

He loved to talk on the telephone--especially if no one was on the other end.

 

He loved giving Baba "the eyes."

He gave sweet kisses.

He laughed a lot.

He insisted on figuring out how things worked (the buttons on the nightstand worked the lights in our hotel room--and Louis was the first in the family to understand that).

He was a fabulous sleeper.

 

He loved hanging out in his crib--even though everyone had told us he wouldn't.

He loved eating out. Well, it would be more accurate just to say he loved eating.

And he thought hotel picnics were terrific.

 

He started to love books.

He loved entertaining us...

...and doing things just like Baba.

One year later, and so much has changed--but so much has stayed the same. We have laughed together and cried together. We have eaten a lot of Cheerios and very little--OK, no--congee. Louis still wants to be like Baba, has a deep appreciation for food, is a natural entertainer, enjoys reading, is happy in his crib with his stuffed animal friends, gives "the eyes," and sucks his thumb.

In other ways Louis has changed. He is more independent. He says "no" in English rather than Chinese and more elaborately--"No e-mail anymore today" he'll declare firmly. He rarely leaves the house without his Cat in the Hat and loves many of his toys, especially his trains and other vehicles. He can sing so many songs and quotes from his "Frog and Toad" books on CD. He knows all the turns to drive to Grandma's house and he can unlock doors much too easily. He has learned all that a typical toddler learns in a year and then a whole new language and culture on top of that. And he slipped into our family like a tender coupling to a steam engine. Don't get the metaphor? Louis will be happy to explain. But he'll tell you, "Louis engine today" so he can go up front.

Trying to decide how to celebrate Louis's first Gotcha Day was a bit difficult. It lands right in between his birthday and Christmas, so gifts seemed anti-climactic. Food is always welcome and Louis still enjoys Chinese food--especially won ton soup. He requested cookies for dessert, so I made chocolate chip cookies and one big cookie in a pie pan. Then we sang "Happy Gotcha Day to You."

Before you get impressed that I captured some nice photos of Louis with his cookie cake...

 

I must confess that he was so excited about blowing out the candle that we lit it again. And again. And again. Six times, in fact.

 He loves candles more than he loves giving me a cheese smile.

 

Just how much of his cookie cake did Louis eat?

Well, here was his plate after he left the table.

 

He's just not much of a baked goods boy.

Then, because we spent our first two weeks as a family admiring Christmas trees in China, we thought it would be fun to put up our own tree for our Gotcha Day celebration. Louis was pleased because he got to carry things. He adores helping.

Then Baba brought out the train tracks, and Louis danced around the house with joy.

We have a few trains, so Louis has seen plenty of trains since arriving in our house. This one, however, topped them all. Baba even lets him work the controls with paternal supervision.

Louis used to say, "I love trains." When Baba opened this box, Louis said, "I love yellow diesel engines."

No disputing that.

 

Apparently he also loves brown boxcars...

and playing with Baba.

Some things haven't changed that much since those first days in China.

One advantage to Gotcha Day celebrations is you can make your own rules. And we figured that if Louis were to pick his own celebration, he would include food--and plenty of it--and trains. Oh, and maybe a day of down time with Mama and Baba.

Tonight as I danced around the house to "Frosty the Snowman" for the 14th time, my son laughing and talking away in my arms, my mind went back to those first days together. Those two weeks were such an amazing time for us as a family. And getting to know Louis over the past year has been such a gift.

Sitting on that bench in Changsha, we had no idea what to expect. We hoped we would be good parents for Louis and that he would thrive in our family. What we didn't even dare expect was that he would be such a natural fit for our family.

He even treated me to a cheese smile in front of the tree tonight.
.

Did you notice that we have yet to put any ornaments on the tree?

Me neither.

It's hard to notice much of anything except this little guy who walked into our arms on Dec. 7, 2009.

Happy Gotcha Day, Louis!