GOTCHA!! Welcome Josiah Zheng Zheng!!

What a wonderful day! Our new son is precious and is a complete blessing. To recap the day's events I'll start at the beginning! I was so full of nerves that I couldn't sleep, waking up at 1:30am China time. I emailed Scott back and forth and spent some time reading in Isaiah. I came across these verses in Isaiah 43..."Fear not, for I have redeemed you. I have summoned you by name; you are mine. When you pass through the waters I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned, the flames will not set you ablaze. For I am the Lord, your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;...Since you are precious and honored in my sight; and because I love you, I will give men in exchange for you, and people in exchange for your life. Do not be afraid, for I am with you; I will bring your children from the east and gather you from the west."
Then in Isaiah 41..."I took you from the ends of the earth, from its farthest corners I called you. I said,'You are my servant' I have chosen you and have not rejected you. So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand." These words were so comforting to me. I know that the Lord has wonderful plans for Josiah, whose name means "the Lord saves". While facing the day, I knew it would be so traumatic for Josiah, but ultimately the Lord will heal his little heart and will use Josiah's life for His glory. When you walk the adoption road, you have to submit daily. You learn to view circumstances from the Lord's perspective. The only way I can stand to witness the complete anguish of my son on Gotcha Day is to keep in mind that God loves Josiah, has a plan for him and for some wonderful, crazy reason He has chosen to bless us to be a part of it.
So anyway, we finally got up around 4:45am. I got everything together- paperwork, a list of questions to ask, toys, snacks and cameras of course! I talked to Scott which is always so calming for me! What a wonderful husband you are! I love you! Then we headed out to breakfast. I ate in record speed! Too nervous. After breakfast I ran back to the room to grab things and arrived just in time to receive a quick call from the kids and Scott. It was great to talk to them before I left. I ran to make one last copy of our Travel Approval and then we all piled into the taxi and headed for the Civil Affairs Adoption Center for our 10am meeting! We arrived first thank goodness!! I had some time to collect myself! The orphanage director arrived next, without Josiah. She was a beautiful and very sweet lady. I just loved her! She had some absolute treasures for me! A beautiful photo album full of pictures of Josiah from infancy till now, a daily record written by his Half the Sky grandma, the two disposable cameras I sent- full of pictures, a copy of his finding ad and most of the care package items I had sent. I was trembling and full of tears as I received these. I only have 3 pictures of Kaia from her baby days and next to no information about her life in China. This made these gifts from the director precious to me! She proceeded to tell me all about the pictures and I could gather that everyone in the orphanage really loved Zheng Zheng! He was even taken to one Ayi's home to celebrate the Spring Festival. There's a picture of her holding him. He is smiling so big in lots of pictures. He just looks so loved and well cared for! I even have pictures of him with his best friend from the orphange. The director told me that he had already been adopted and is home with his parents. They then gave me paperwork to fill out. I had to write why we wanted to adopt from China and promise to love him and never abuse or abadon him. Then, the moment I'd been waiting for- Josiah arrived with a nanny! He walked in holding the little photo album I'd sent him. He knew immediately who I was and why I was there! He wanted nothing to do with me or the situation!:) He didn't really cry, just followed his nanny around as she tried her best to get away from him and push him towards me saying, "mama, mama". Poor Josiah! I backed off and just let him try to get comfortable. I quickly finished paperwork while the nanny took him to the potty. I tried everything that had worked so well with Kaia to distract him, to get him to be okay around me. Nothing. He was not having any of it! He was not bribed with snacks, toys or anything else, he just followed his nanny frantically saying, "bao, bao" which means hold me. They were trying so hard, I felt bad for them. Everyone in a rush of Mandarin, telling Josiah that I was his mama and he needed to go to me. He looked at me skeptically and then cried! Finally, the director told me to just pick him up and comfort him. I did and he fought me, but not that bad. They left and he wailed, calling out to anyone in the room to "bao, bao" hold me! And he also shouted, "let's go, I want to go!" Heartbreaking. This time around I expected this though and was not shaken by it, just felt my own heart breaking for him. Even through his crying I was able to just enjoy and absorb how sweet and beautiful he is. He was so much bigger than I had anticipated! I think he may be bigger than Kaia! He laid his head on my shoulder and had his hand on my other shoulder. I could kiss his head and smell baby powder. He was just precious! He cried and cried for an hour and a half until he finally fell asleep on my shoulder! We quickly left the Civil Affairs building andheaded for the hotel. He stayed asleep for the ride but woke up once we got out of the taxi. He was disoriented but calm. He liked seeing his reflection in the elevator doors. When we got to the room, I quickly dialed Scott on Skype so that everyone at home could see Josiah. Josiah was calm for awhile, but quickly dissolved into tears and I found that he had wet his pants. Poor baby! I peeled three layers of pants off- two long johns and one pair of nylon jogging pants. Then four shirts- one long john top, a turtleneck, a lined white cable-knit cardagain, and the matching nylon jacket. He was very loved! He really didn't want to part with the clothes, but once I got him in the tub, he relaxed and started to play. It dawned on me that I actually forgot to pack bath toys!! We improvised and used a water bottle and a ball. He loved filling up the bottle and dumping it out over his hands. I got him out, dressed him and grandma started making him some noodles. Once I got some food into him, he relaxed and played next to me on the floor. He loved his trucks and cars, especially the dump truck that yeye got him. It makes noises and lights up. He investigated everything about the toys. Very into cause and effect. We had a wonderful time bonding with him while daddy looked on via the webcam. He would even smile and quickly hide his face by looking down. He did not want us to see that! We gave him snacks and just enjoyed being with him. It's clear that he is a sweetheart! He is cuddly and very sweet natured! At one point, we were looking out the window at the street below and he came alive. He actually spoke!! He was smiling and guesturing and talking about something below that he wanted me to see. He actually took my head in his hands and put it where he wanted me to look. He wanted me to hold him and I gladly did. From this point on, if we were on the floor, he wanted in my lap. If I was walking around, he'd seek me out. Amazing! He got so tired and I picked him up and swayed back and forth until he finally fell asleep on my shoulder. I carefully managed to lay down with him perched on top of my chest and tried to give him a few more minutes to go into a deeper sleep. I swear this should be an art form, trying to guess when your child is ready to be laid down!! I guessed wrong and he woke up! We did this two more times before he finally woke up for good. He started to get sad, but grandpa quickly turned that around! Josiah gave us his first little chuckles when he and grandpa were playing and taking turns rolling trucks off of the bed. He's precious!! He has the best smile! His little eyes just light up and his smile is adorable! He throws his head back and laughs! He'd do this whenever one of us did something he thought was funny, like make a yucky face or a cool crashing sound effect for his car games. I think he has us all wrapped around his little finger! Ooops, I hear him waking up. Gotta go! I'll finish later! See dropshots for pics!