Happy Gotcha Day, Louis!

Two years ago today John and I sat waiting in a stark courtroom-like office. We were excited and nervous and not at all surprised to learn that our son--out of all the children who were traveling to Changsha that day--was stuck in traffic. Waiting is part of adoption. We had waited 11 months to travel to Louis and a few years longer than that to become parents.

We watched all the other families meet their children. It was beautiful and emotional, painful and wonderful. Some of the children meeting their families that day were babies, and others were pre-teens. I'll never forget sitting with John's hand in mine, taking in the tears and smiles, and wondering whether our little boy would ever get there.

Then he arrived. He walked in on his own, scared and brave and shy and awfully cute. And he was our son. We had known that the moment we first saw his photo, but we knew it even more deeply as we greeted him. The caregiver with him leaned down, told him we were his Mama and Baba--in Mandarin, of course--and then she vanished.

There must have been other people in the room at that point (I can see them in the photos), but I was only aware of three--Louis, Baba, and me.

I thought that memory might fade over time, but it is as vivid to me today as it was on Dec. 8, 2009, when we officially became a family of three and our grinning Louis stamped his handprint on an official Chinese document.

Looking back, it's still amazing to me that Louis settled in so easily, finding ways to connect with us long before we found a common language.

Every child is a miracle. Having Louis as our son seems especially miraculous to us. He just fits our family so beautifully with his sense of humor, curiosity, and love for life.

Tonight when we prayed with Louis, we thanked God for him and for Michael, and we asked God--as we often do--to bless all those who cared for him and Michael before they became our sons. We will always be grateful to Louis's foster parents who loved him so much and prepared him for a life-jarring transition.

As a special treat for Louis today, we celebrated with food.

We carried in from our favorite Chinese restaurant where the chef happens to be from Changsha. The won ton soup is the best we've had.

Louis seems to like everything they make, though we aren't very adventurous in our ordering. One day maybe we'll branch out. For now our boys are happy with noodles and dumplings and soup and rice.

I would have liked to bake a cake, but--as I may have mentioned once a week or so--Louis doesn't particularly enjoy baked goods, and Michael--our baked goods enthusiast--is still very much under the weather and not eating well. In fact, the biggest highlight of Louis's Gotcha Day was having Baba home to care for the boys--and then taking our second trip to the doctor in three days.

I was hoping Michael's fortune would say something about being restored to good health, but we had no such luck. Both fortunes were a bit vague--Michael's said he was full of wisdom. He did learn to say "melon" today, so maybe that counts.

The cookies were tasty.

After dinner, Louis gave a spontaneous performance, playing the "Gotcha Monster" with Baba.

Then we just goofed off for the evening while I held a drowsy, feverish Michael and Louis enjoyed his apparent restoration to health.

Baba and I take turns putting Louis to bed, and tonight was my turn. As I held Louis at bedtime, I couldn't help thinking back to our first night together in Changsha. Louis even let me sing "Toora Loora Loora" to him, a song he hasn't been requesting much lately.

It's hard to believe how much this boy has grown in two years. And it's almost impossible to remember life pre-Louis. Of course, I can barely recall life pre-Michael.

Louis is bigger, knows more delay tactics at bedtime ("Baba, can we talk about air conditioning? What about moths?"), and has a few months of big brotherhood under his belt. But when I look at him, I can still see that little 25-month-old boy we first started to get to know in China two years ago. 
 

Happy Gotcha Day, our dear Louis! How blessed we are to be your forever family.