Gotcha Day!

This is Gotcha Day number SEVEN for us!  Wow, the years have flown.  Gotcha Day is what many call the day they met their adopted children.  I usually say "Family Day" instead, because "Gotcha Day" puts the emphasis on the parents' meeting their child instead of the child being enfolded into a family.  Family Day sort of spreads around the love, the feeling of "it's about all of us" and is not entirely from the parents' point of view.  Important to some.

Right now, "Family" Day is not important to Luci.  She wanted to call it "Gotcha" Day.  So we did.

We met Luci when she was just 9 1/2 months old.  Tiny, skinny, beautiful baby.  She did not cry much; now that I know her personality so well, I think she was taking it all in and waiting to see if she should cry about her new situation.  She's a quiet studier until she feels comfortable, and then--oh, then!  Then she talks non-stop!

If you look closely, you can see that her eyebrows are sort of in an "I'm not too sure yet" position.  That photo was taken in the Howard Johnson Hotel in Guiyang, Guizhou, China on August 14, 2005.  Don't laugh about us being in a Ho-Jo's; in China they are deluxe hotels!  JT was nine and missing his two front teeth.  Bryan was thirteen! 

So.  It is "Gotcha Day" at our house.  Luci had a lot of things that we "must do, Mommy!  It's my day!"  I think part of her frenzy over her day had something to do with the fact that every single one of us, except her, had birthdays, Mother's Day and Father's Day and wedding anniversary since mid-May.  She truly felt left out.

Things got so busy that I dubbed the day "Luci-Palooza Day."

First, we had to have a cake.  Rectangle, Mommy.  And 'nilla.  With pink icing. 

The cake must have 7 candles--but don't sing "Happy Gotcha Day to You!"  Just say, One, Two, Three! and I'll blow them out.

Lots of good food to eat with her new chopsticks!  We got the chopsticks while we were in China, so that made them more special.  What made them even special-er?  They are pink!  We had sweet and sour chicken over rice (don't be jealous of my super-fancy way to serve rice--straight out of the rice cooker with a plastic measuring cup so I won't scratch the cooker) and jiaozi!    They turned out so well that all fifty (yes, I said fifty!) were gone when supper was over.  Here's a recipe for jiaozi.  I cheated and bought the wrappers from the produce department of our grocery store.

Bryan made a special card for Luci, and JT wrote a cute story about her for her presents.  John and I gave her the chopsticks, plus the kids' names written in hanzi, the Chinese characters.  One of the boys, and I can't remember which one (that is a good thing because then I can't embarrass him too much!) asked how I got those.  Did you find them in China, with our names already on them, all packaged like that?  If you've been to China, you already know, but I'll inform the rest of y'all:  There are people everywhere with booths, and in stores, who will do calligraphy for you.  I had a man do these for us and he packaged them up so we could bring them home safely.  We'll get them framed and they will go in our "Hall of Fame" here at home.  (The man did not understand "J.T." so he wrote out "Jonathan" instead.)

After supper (dinner to you if you are not from the South), Luci had a list of things for us to do:

She dictated the first four; then decided she wanted to write them herself.  So I spelled for her as she wrote, until she got tired of that and sped things up by writing numbers 7 and 8 in her own phonetically fine writing.  (7. Watch Luci Videos and 8. Origami)

She told the boys they must stay with us and do all the things on her list.  I checked them off as we went.  I LOVE number 5!  LAUGH.   Luci taught us how to make a doggy face with Number 8, origami folding.  Number 2, "Kiss the baby," was a game we played in China.  I'd say, "Kiss the baby!" and we'd all lean in to kiss Luci on the noggin.  It was to get her used to us touching her, and getting up close and personal.  When we played this last night, she let the boys kiss her on the cheek!  She never does that on any normal day.

Number 7, "watch Luci videos," was sweet.  We'd watched all but one during the day, so video #1 (of us meeting her) was the only one left.  One of the girls in our adoption group was distraught and cried the whole time.  It was heartbreaking to hear and watch on the video, but honestly?  When we were there in the midst of getting our princess, I didn't hear her at all.  My focus was on Luci!

Luci's comment last night about that day and the one crying:  "It was a very commotional day."

So, what does a girl do when confronted with too much commotion (emotion)?

"I'm going to get some cake."

And she did.

The Best Thing We've Ever Done

Three years ago, a little bundle of girl was handed to us. What a day! This is the best thing we've ever done--give a little girl a family. And in return, she is exactly what we needed.

I had a special little item for Luci that we got while we were in China, all saved for our Gotcha Day. Luci found it! So I found another gift: a fairy princess dress. She likes this better than the little bento box and chopsticks, anyway (it is very similar to this one). And it fits her fairy tale life.

I made Chinese food for supper, and we had a special pie for dessert. I asked everyone to say something about Luci. (For the boys, I specified that it had to be nice.)

John said that Luci is such a thankful child. John walked into the house with balloons and Luci said, "Thank you, Daddy!" several times. She says thank you quite often during the day, without any prodding at all. It is so sweet.

JT: "Luci's the cutest person in the whole wide world."

Bryan: "I'm glad we got you. Without you we wouldn't be in this house."

Me: I said that Luci meant hope for our family. We'd been through a lot, losing a baby and then searching for a child to be in our home. Searching for a place to build a new home and finding this perfect place, this happy house. Her story, and why we searched for her are stories full of hope.

Here are some highlights from today: Bryan presenting Luci with her gift.
Princess dresses are more appropriate for this child than that old bento box!

Three great kids!

What Lu Min Jie had on three years ago.
The pacifier was tied around her neck, and this outfit was so big! The sleeves and pants legs were rolled up more than half their length.
Kalyn and Kathy came over today. The girls had a lot of fun trying on different clothes. It was pretty funny, and not always G-rated. It was not hard to imagine them as teens, trying on each other's clothes. I'm so glad we know Kalyn and her family!
Kitty Kalyn
Her true character:

silly!

Christmas Eve

Today was so fun. Santa's helper got done wrapping gifts at 1:45 a.m. Luci got up at 7 a.m. and had us going from then on. We do have one child intent on testing the Coal Theory...we hope he nicens up considerably before Santa gets here.





The kids got to open one present and had a race to see who would be fastest. Then we watched Luci's Gotcha Day DVDs--oh, that was so fun! She was so beautiful--still is, of course. Luci wanted to wear her Gotcha Day clothes--what the orphanage people put on her when we got her--and then we took some pictures of the kids in front of the tree. I am putting all of them here, they were so funny. Luci's wearing her Gotcha Day shirt in the pictures.