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Today is the day we celebrate as our adoption family day!! After I wrapped up the blogs last night, I did some last minute preparations for our Wednesday. I packed up a day bag, unsure of what we would need. I gathered all of the foster family gifts, and then got out toys for Mia to play with for the moment that we would meet. And THEN it hit me. The toys did it. It was all of a sudden real. Today was the day we would meet our girl.
We woke up early and had a very quiet breakfast with just the two of us in the restaurant downstairs and tried to kill time until it was THE time. I have been calm so much this trip already and I am so very grateful for that. I told Aaron at breakfast that God has to be in this because this is just not me. If you had seen me two weeks prior to this trip, you would not have recognized the girl that met Mia today. Thank you all so much for covering us in your prayers!
Our nerves finally kicked in as we went downstairs to meet the social workers. As we were coming out of the elevators, our friends from last night took a moment to pray with us. Such an encouragement that they would take the time and stop to pray for us.
Before we knew it, our social worker was walking back into our lives. We both talked about how it felt like we were just here not that long ago. We met the other two families who are here from Norway (both fantastic and super kind), and the social worker asked if we could do the meeting up in our room. Um… yes please!
If you know anything about us at all, you know we love to document life. This time around, that comes in the shape of blogging with photos captured from 6 different cameras. 6. S I X. Aaron didn‘t sleep well last night. Part of that is due to jet lag, but mostly due to the fact that he puts so much pressure on himself to capture these moments for our kids. We want to tell them their stories as they grow up. We breathed a sigh of relief when we knew we would have everything in place to document our daughter walking into our life.
After our short meeting with the social workers, the kids were ready. It felt like f o o o r e e e v e e r, but minutes later, you could hear the sound of tiny footsteps and crying outside our door. It opened to 3 little people, 1 overjoyed (not ours), 1 timid with a bit of inquisitive mixed in (not ours), and 1 terrified little girl with her bottom lip trembling to hold back the reservoir of tears, crying, and screaming that were to come just about 30 seconds later (that one was ours). We were THAT family. Again. 🙂
But oh my goodness, this little girl is AMAZING! She never really warmed up to us or our ploys to have fun with the toys we had prepared. The social workers asked us to just pick her up after 30 minutes of tears. Um… yes please! More crying ensued, but we were together. We were a family, swaying back and forth, and trying to figure out the rhythm that is our girl. The moment that Aaron took her out of my arms, she stopped crying. Apparently, I am the bad guy. But he was able to calm her down and we kind of made an Aaron sandwich hug. She let me rub her back and looked into my eyes as Aaron held her, and that was good enough for me.
For lunch, we walked down across the street to a new restaurant for us and Aaron was able to hold her and we got a few smiles out of her. She let me feed her (which the social workers said she wouldn‘t even eat, she was so upset) so whaa hoo! I fed her a whole bowl of soup and some of my fried rice, all the while making eye contact with each bite. YAY!! We came back to the room for about an hour of down time – more highs and lows for her – and then got ready to head off to the foster family‘s home for the afternoon.
You guys! Even with all of the tears, today was such an incredible day. She is amazing, sweetness personified and brave. Her pouty bottom lip trembles right before the tears come. She has huge – gorgeous eyes, and has the most beautiful eyelashes I have ever seen. We love her so much already and feel honored that we get to spend the rest of our lives falling more in love with our girl. This is the day that we will celebrate as our adoption family day for the rest of our lives.
Big day – more to come…
Tools to document your day…
- Camera Phone (for easy pictures and handheld video)
- Wide angle moment lens (for wide angle interiors or tight moments where you want to fit more in)
- Mini Tripod and / or travel tripod (for putting yourself in the space)
- SLR (for quality video or stunning photos)
- Osmo Pocket (for adding smooth movement to your video)
- Insta360 One X (this one depends on the room and is not best in low light – it does allow you to capture every angle all at once though, so if the room is well lit, we would have loved to have had this option)
- GoPro + Suction Mount (for an observers perspective of the room where you meet)
It’s our adoption family day! This is how we roll, but it doesn’t mean you have to. Mix and match what is going to give you the best experience and level of documentation that you are comfortable with. Technology changes quickly, so we’ll try to keep you up-to-date with what is currently in our camera bag and the tools we are now using to document travel.
