GOTCHA DAY!!!!!

Hey Everybody! Caleb back again :) I am beyond honored to bring the good tidings that Scott and Connie officially have Ethan in their arms forever! I've got a summary of gotcha day from Connie here to share with you as well as some pictures, for all you excited and inquiring minds :)

Our son is laying next to me asleep as i have been fighting with this stinkin' computer! He did such a great job on the trip here! He had a few melt downs but not anything we couldn't handle. 

 

 We got to the orphanage and we went right to the director's office. We were able to ask our questions! We got our answers too. We were not shocked by anything that we were told. He doesn't like to be told No, he takes toys from the other kids, he eats other kids' food, he bites when he is upset. He will need a few surgeries but nothing different than a 'typical' child with DS needs....adnoids, tonsils, and his eyes. They told us that he has broken numerous glasses and he refuses to wear them...he also can't stand ours:)
As we were talking a worker brought Ethan into the sunny room. This time he didn't come right to me but rather he just looked and i did more of the approaching. He is a MAJOR cuddle bug but can sometimes be a little rough, SO you can't ever let your guard down and just let him kiss you! He will learn soon enough though.

Signing some important papers!

Father and Son :)

Getting into a new outfit with mommy!

"Look everybody! I have a daddy :)"

Reunited forever!

We then got to have a tour of the orphanage!!! His room was bright and colorful and i was thrilled with how clean it all was.

We were only in the orphanage for a TOTAL of 50 minutes and then we were escorted out with the director. She walked Ethan from her office and then she had Ethan take my hand on his other side and she let go on her side. Then i got to walk our son out to freedom and an incredibly DIFFERENT way of life that he would have NEVER had!

Our over three hour trip was not the way i expected it to be. It was WAY better:) For the first twenty minutes he literally held both of our hands and would not let them go! He just sat there and looked out the window! We were thinking that this was pretty sweet!!! We had a smoke break for our driver and interpreter and it got him changed up SO we started feeding him Puffs-Sweet Potato and he was amazing! He BITES HIS FOOD!!!! He chews with his teeth! Those of you who were with us last time knew that he more or less just 'tongued' everything -including a croissant! We were thrilled! THEN he drank from a cup with a lid! WONDERFULLY! He was hungry and thirsty almost the whole trip!

He threw a few fits where he would throw himself around the seat....he isn't used to having a seat belt on so we were NOT surprised! Then we would try different things and another shocker was that he was VERY good with books....well, except that he bites them!!! SO, Sophina will have some bite marks on her books now.

We went to our hotel and picked up a woman with her son from the Pleven orphanage and they have been here for MONTHS!!! Pleven is the orphanage that was in the Bulgarian news and is where Katie came from. We then went straight to the Police Station where we got Ethan's picture taken for his passport. Let's just say that it was NOT an easy time and i think that they just gave up and let it pass. We have no idea as to what it looks like.

We then exchanged some money into Bulgarian money and brought Ethan to the hotel. He was exhausted, scared and hungry by now. I ran to the market a few blocks away and bought him some yogurt and bananas. Came back to him laying on the bed gabbering to his heart's desire!

 THEN we tried to Skype with the girls (6:30am their time) but Ethan just screamed as he was tired and scared. I put some calming oils on his ears and he started to get sleepy but before that there was much 'scary crying' as you could tell that it was hitting him that something was different and he didn't know what was going on. We gave him some Melatonin to see if that would help for the airplane later and he was asleep soon after BUT...BUT he HAD to have me holding him. He would cling to me if i even tried to put him down....and that lasted for quite some time!
He is a dear little boy....who just LITERALLY sat up and crawled into my arms & laid his head down on my shoulder...better go!