Two weeks ago my husband, Eric, and I had the opportunity to
travel to DRC to meet our children. We
have been home now for less than 48 hours and are trying to process through
everything that happened on our trip. I
don’t think I have ever been as nervous as I was when we got to the airport in
Atlanta to head to DRC. My head was
spinning with “what ifs”. What if our
kids don’t like us? What if they fit the
worst-case scenarios that we read about in all of the books? What do I do when I see them for the first
time? Do I hug them? If I cry will it
freak them out? The list goes on and
on.
Two days later on Friday, March 13, 2015 (I will remember
that date forever.) as I looked into their big brown eyes, all of my anxiety
melted away. All of a sudden all of the pictures that we had seen of them over
the past year came to life. They were
amazing! Our little boy had never smiled
in a picture that we had received from EAC.
We were worried about him. Within
5 minutes of being with him we saw his big bright smile. He was shy and sweet and hated having his
picture taken. Our little girl was
exactly the firecracker that we had imagined, either really really happy or
really really mad.
At first the days were long and we were exhausted. We were so thankful for the books we’ve read
and the people who have walked ahead of us and shared their stories. We knew that the mood swings and fits were
the result of their anxiety and completely normal. At some point during the week we hit our
groove. (They loved swimming and
selfies!) It was as if they’d been our children forever. Even though there were some exhausting tough
times we just fit together. It all made
sense. The process worked. Somehow we were matched with the perfect kids
for us.
We had the opportunity to spend a good amount of time with
Samuel from EAC. We loved him! He’s one of those people that you know right
away that he’s a good guy. This was
extremely important to us. Later in the
week he toured me around the Sunshine House, which was great too. The nannies, gardener, and cook were so
kind. I got all teary and emotional when
I thanked them for taking care of my kids.
The children were all napping while I was there. I did get to peek my head into all the rooms
and I was greeted with a lot of smiles, especially from the older girls’ room.
Eric got the opportunity to sit down and talk with Laurent,
our attorney in DRC. They totally hit it
off! (My husband is a lawyer too.) Laurent is an honest ethical person who
really knows the law in DRC and the US.
Eric was impressed with him in every way. We are thrilled that he is the one
representing us. It’s a relationship that
I’m sure will continue beyond our adoption.
I can honestly say that I am so thankful for EAC and that we
chose them to handle our adoption. (And,
no, Debra is not paying me to say this.)
As we met people throughout the week we heard over and over again how
well our children looked compared to other kids that come stay at Sunny
Day. As a mama, this made my heart
happy.
Now we are home trying to make sense of the past two
weeks. Our hearts ache for those kids
like they never had before. We miss them
every minute. We cling to the fact that
God has taken care of them this far, and there’s no reason to think that He
will stop now. We are full of gratitude
for the wonderful people who are in our children’s lives, we are full of
humility because God has chosen us to be on this journey, and we are full of
hope for what the future will bring.
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