“Shine your soul with the same egoless humility as the rainbow and no matter where you go in the world or the next, love will find you, attend you, and bless you.” – Aberjhani, Journey through the Power of the Rainbow: Quotations from a Life Made Out of Poetry
This week we were blessed. We celebrated my younger daughter’s 10th Gotcha Day. What’s a Gotcha Day? It’s the anniversary of the day on which a child joins a family by adoption. This date may differ from the actual adoption day.
For us, our younger daughter’s Gotcha Day ended a three and a half year journey. It was the culmination of years of prayer, hope, excitement, wonder, sadness, stress, and delays. You can describe it, maybe, as a bitter-sweet experience. For us, God set our path and we knew love was our guide no matter what obstacle came our way. And the obstacles were many, but so were the amazing blessings.
We celebrate our daughter’s life, the miracle of her existence and ongoing growth. We thank God for his wondrous plan and for all those he placed in our path to make this miracle come to fruition.
What did we find when we arrived at the Adoption Center ten years ago? A child held in God’s palm. A beautiful nineteen pound little girl, then two years and seven months old. She was initially inconsolable, hoarse from crying and exhausted from her ordeal of riding three hours in a van to the city.
We were finally able to calm her a bit when a water stick with a ball that floated back and forth caught her eye. We had our opening, you could see it in her eyes; they danced and lit up. What was this thing? How did the ball go back and forth? The wonder of this object broke her misery.
We quickly began sharing other things that intrigued her; a recorder that played Winnie the Pooh songs, a small board book, her own Winnie the Pooh. Relief, we could all breathe and relax. Our older daughter, five at the time, came out from hiding behind us, her place of retreat when the crying didn’t stop. Our family unit was now in tune with one another.
Once back at the hotel, we found she would not fit in any of the 2 – 3 year old toddler clothing we brought. She was still in 6-9 month old clothing, could not eat solid food, wasn’t able to speak and could only stand and walk a few steps before going back to crawling. Every change in her environment brought on another bout of uncontrollable crying.
What else? She was and still is a miracle, a ray of sunshine with a smile that could and still can light up a room. Her eyes danced and continue to dance with love and laughter. She was and is a joy.
We also celebrate the memories of those we met along the way and the friendships that have continued over time. Poy, a lovely young girl working at the hotel on the courtesy floor was our light. She was so kind always ready to help with directions, email access, snacks for the girls and anything else we needed. Poy was also such a source of encouragement and support. Just her smile greeting us as we walked in, lifted all our spirits. God sent us a guardian angel to help us along the way.
Funny, the girls still have the crown tiara she bought for our younger daughter and markers for drawing for our older daughter. Over the years, she has sent them a blow up pool and wishes for their 100 Good Wishes Albums. Isn’t it amazing? A chance meeting touched us forever.
We also think about our adoption guide, David. Once we found our little one couldn’t eat solids and wouldn’t drink milk or formula, he immediately picked up a special tea for children packed with vitamins. He helped us figure out dishes we could order for our daughter that she could eat like, steamed eggs with soy sauce, soup, and Congee.
We give thanks for our friends that watched our home and decorated for our return. It was a beautiful surprise that will always be remembered. The girls had gift baskets and decorated rooms and we had a refrigerator filled with fresh food. For a travel wearied family, this was our nirvana.
One of our younger daughter’s names is Jing, meaning crystal. The Chinese characters for crystal are three suns. We gave our daughter this name because she sparkles like a crystal. God has granted us a gift that sparkles, shines and provides more light than three suns. So yes, we celebrate. We are grateful for being granted such blessings. Gotcha Day is a very special day.