March 24, 2011
Oh My! 9th Gotcha Day for Suzanne!
I really don’t have words for this day, accept, WOW!
9 years ago Liz and I were not parents. We were just a couple traveling half way across the world for a very precious gift. A gift that would bring a lot of joy, a lot of challenge and a lot of love. We have a beautiful daughter who is awesome! Our older daughter who is full of life and loving everything she does and works on. It is a joy to watch her learn the clarinet. It is fun to watch her grow from a small little infant to and very complete little girl. There are a lot of things that come to her very easily and some that are just really hard. She loves math! That is nice to see. She loves to read and will reread any and every book that she has read. She has many friends. She loves school. She is an awesome girl.
On this day 9 years ago we were waiting in a lobby of a hotel in the middle of China. Waiting to make our family complete. (Little did we know that it wouldn’t really be complete for a few years to come.) We saw a beautiful little girl come through the door, into the hotel lobby, in the arms of a caretaker. Looking around not knowing that her life was about to have a huge change. She wasn’t really happy about it. She has never been good with change! The unhappy little girl lasted through the night. But when the sun started the next day we had a happy little girl on our hands. That has not changed since that first full day as a family, a forever family! Ups and downs have happened. Don’t get me wrong. Everyday is a new adventure. But that laugh has not changed, it has just gotten older.
Every year I write a little note and every year I wait until the last moment to do it. Not really sure why, but I think I just want to write from the heart. I think that has happened.
I love the Gotcha Day’s that we celebrate as a family. It is a celebration of the heart from the heart. Suzanne gets a gift that we purchased in China on our “Trip to Suzanne” so that every year she gets a gift from her homeland. She has started to really enjoy the excitement of getting that gift. We have wrapped them all in red paper so we can’t even remember what is in the package. We get a little enjoyment as well.
Today is the day we celebrate our oldest daughter, making a couple become a family.
Yep it has been a really long time since I posted here. Even Facebook has taken a back seat.
Since my last post the girls have lost a few teeth. They have grown quite a lot. Liz has started at a new school. Oh yeah! And we sold our condo and have moved into a really nice house! Yay us!
I am sure there is a lot more to add here but lets just say it has been a while and I will try to post as much as possible in the future.
Not really sure if that means a lot or a little, only time will tell.
We did recently celebrate Sydney’s Gotcha Day on Sept 17th. We really celebrated it on the 15th because the 17th just wouldn’t work. Sydney has been part of our family for 6 years. It really seems just like yesterday. We loaded a then 3 year old Suzanne into a car late at night and drove to the San Francisco airport. We kept her awake way past her bedtime so she would sleep on the flight. Which she did! When we arrived we found our guide and away we went. We spent time in the wonderful city of Xian. Then off to get our new daughter. We arrived in Changsha and were greeted by another guide and off to the hotel… or so we thought! He had some different plans. He told us that we were driving to meet our new daughter. We were just a little bit nervous. Suzanne however was really excited to meet her new sister. Awesome!
In a nut shell that is the day we became a family of four!
This is a re-post of last years Gotcha Day post. This year we celebrated her day at our favorite restaurant an had a blast. This year she received two wall hangings from her birth province, Hunan. She also received some Panda book marks.
She is a bright and very intelligent little girl soon to be 9 years old. She still loves school and is doing fabulous in 3rd grade.
On to the post!
Jeff
March 24-
Today is Suzanne’s Gotcha Day!
Some of you may not have any idea what a Gotcha Day is, so I will tell you.
From Suzanne: “Gotcha Day is a special day when I was a baby. That day is the day my Mom and Dad met me. Since we celebrate it today I get a special present that was bought in China during the time that we became a family. I think it is very special to have a Gotcha Day!”
Eight years ago today we were given a very precious gift. We had flown over the Pacific Ocean and spent a few days in Bejing and then driven over a very long and bumpy road.
I can’t believe that it has been 8 years. This little kiddo is an assume kid. She is smart, nice, has many friends! She loves to read. She loves art! She has a fabulous imagination. She is a great writer. She is a Girl Scout, well a Brownie actually. She loves school.
Gotcha Day is very special is our house. We celebrate it like a holiday. When we were in China w purchased 18 gifts. One gift given on each Gotcha Day anniversary. We will have dinner with family and a couple of close friends. Except this year it will be a few days later than normal. It’s just a busy week. Suzanne gets really excited and loves spending time with friends and family.
Another thing we think about is Suzanne’s birth family. They will never get to see her grow into the wonderful little girl we now know or woman she will become.
I know that I think about that every day.
Suzanne and Sydney are looking at Liz’s old purses. Checking them out and going through them. They found old tickets to shows, Muni passes, and then Suzanne grabs a HANDFUL of items and brings them to Liz.
Here is the very short conversation:
Suz: What are these?
Me: You get to take that one! (pointing at my lovely wife!)
Liz: Well those are for when you hit puberty.
Suz: What’s that?
Liz: Well it is when you grow up and it is when your body changes so you can have babies.
Suz: Ah… Okay!
And that was the end of it!
I’ll give you three guesses as to what she found and the first two do not count!
I think she dodged a really big bullet!
What do you think??
The other day I was picking Suzanne up at her after school care and two of Suzanne’s friends came up to me and asked me I knew who Suzanne’s parents were. Normally if an adult would ask this question I would say, “Yes, We are!”
But I knew exactly what they were asking. “Do you know Suzanne’s biological parents?” OF course we do not but you need to tell kids in a different way. After I told them no and why they seemed okay and went about their business.
On the way to the car I started talking to her and making sure that she knew if she had ANY questions that I would do my best to answer as best I could. She thought of a second and said, “Could I write a letter to the orphanage and let them know how I am doing?” With tears in my eyes I said ABSOLUTELY! I also told her that we could send it with some pictures to the director himself.
Last night after dinner she asked if she could use Microsoft Word on the computer to write something. I said of course, not remembering our conversation from the previous day. Then I looked at what she was writing. All I can say is that it was AWESOME!!!!! I can’t write what she wrote without asking her if I can post it so hopefully in another day or two I will be able to post the letter here.
Sydney Update Too!!
This little girl is a HUGE smarty pants! She is reading at a 2.5 grade level and she has just started first grade! She is also excellent in her Minute Math levels. Minute Math for those that don’t know is where you have a sheet of problems that you on until the minute is up. She has gotten up to the letter O, I think they go from A - Z.
Only one other classmate is even close to her and they are on K.
WTG Sydney! Now she wants to get Multiplication Flash Cards to work on!
You GO GIRL!!!!
I think I’m a bad parent! Why? I forgot Sydney’s gotcha day! If it wasn’t for my phone calendar I would have blown it for sure. I can only chalk it up to being busy. That it NOT a good excuse, it just isn’t. Sydney I am truly sorry. Tonight we will do a last minute dinner wherever you want. Sorry we didn’t have more family at dinner. We will still be celebrating your day. I can remember that day very clearly 5 years ago. We landed I Changsha found our guide and started off for the hotel. Little did we know you would become a part of our family in just under a hours time. We had expected to meet you on the following Monday. Suzanne was so excited to finally meet you, she was jumping for joy! When you were finally brought into the meeting room you were so quiet, Mama and I were scared and excited. Suzanne was just plain excited, she was getting a little sister. We had a great weekend as a new family of four, finally!
Today is Gotcha Day! The day you joined the family, the day our family became whole, a very special day for sure! 5 years ago wow!
One day I will never forget. (again)
Love you kiddo! Wai ai nie
I saw this video posted on a friends blog.
Couldn’t resist sharing it myself.
Enjoy!!
I also have some news on the job front.
Last April our department was told that we were no long needed. That meant we were getting laid-off. Yep! It sucked! No small task here either. We were the department responsible for maintaining a lot of stuff at work. When we would tell people that this had happened one of two things would be said, and always followed the third.
“How are they going to run things now?”
“Who do I go to now when something goes wrong?”
“What the HELL are they thinking?”
All of us had those questions as well. As it so happens one of the systems that we kept track of failed on the first weekend after we were gone. Am I smiling? Yes and No!!
Almost 14 years at that job and a lot of wonderful memories! It will be missed but I know I will come back to visit on occasion.
But I did get a new job! I am now working with the payment crew at the Dept. of Transportation. Great group of guys and they have fun. So it looks like I am in good hands… just a really different job.
So when I saw that video above it made me smile and I wanted to share a smile with everyone else!!!!
Quick note to 3D… Hopefully sooner than later!! My fingers are crossed for a faster timeframe!!! HUGS!!!!
How in the heck did that happen? I remember the day we held her in our arms for the first time. Full of fear and terror! Okay not really, but we should have been!
I little 9 month old just given to us to hold. We were in a small hotel room in China and had no idea WHAT to expect, but she was ours!
Fast forward to today!
I walked into her room to wake her up for the morning. Groggy and sleepy eyed, she tells me, “You forgot to say Happy Birthday to me!” Well I didn’t forget, she never gave me the chance! Liz and I have to both had work today so she and Sydney went to the beach for beach day monday and had a great time. I told her to have the car back by 5pm!! Just kidding! They went with our close family friends, second parents/family if you will!
As I have said before, today is a day that I think about the birth family of Suzanne. Do they wonder what type of little girl she has become? Do they wonder if she is smart? Do they wonder if she is healthy? Do they ever wonder what she looks like? I wonder every single day, when I get to look into her wonderfully deep brown eyes, what her birthparents wonder about.
She is a happy little girl! She is a healthy little girl! She is a smart little girl! She is also a beautiful little girl!
She is in the Girl Scouts and has had a great time with it this year. She has a lot of badges and has a great time with her friends. She loves to swim and loves playing at the beach and finally in the water! WooHoo! I am bummed that I am missing the first beach day monday of the year but I also know that I will make a few, I promise!!
Happy Birthday Little one, it is so great seeing you become a little girl!!
Shao bao bei
