OUR JOURNEY TO KENAN

Part 5

GOTCHA DAY!

I can hardly believe it's been a year since we got to see and hold Kenan for the first time.

What an emotion filled day! We woke up that morning and went downstairs to eat breakfast in the hotel's restaurant. Afterwards we sat around our hotel room waiting for the phone to ring telling us he had arrived. Those were the longest 3 hours of the whole process. We tried to find things to do to keep us from going stir crazy but there's only so much Spanish TV we could watch. Madeline had brought her week's worth of school work with her so we attempted to get some of that out of the way. 11:00 comes and goes, no phone call. Kenan had been in foster care since he was three days old and in the meeting the day before they told us it was very common for the foster moms to be late because they had to take public transportation and in Latin America they don't follow schedules like we do here.

Noon comes and the phone finally rings! They told us to come on down to the hospitality suite, he was there! Here is a clip of those first moments. As you'll see, we aren't seasoned video takers so things are shaky, the lighting is dark in places and when we saved it on here it didn't do it in high resolution. So even though it's not the greatest, you'll still have a good idea of the very first time we saw him in person.

I had imagined that moment for a long time but it ended up being nothing like I thought it would be. Out of respect and sensitivity for his foster mom, I didn't snatch him right up, especially when she picked him up seconds after we walked in. I knew that these were her last minutes with him and that she wouldn't get another child because of the new laws.

Forever Family

We spent a long time talking with her through an interpreter finding out all about his routines and personality. After she left we went back to our room and had a little bonding time.

Later that afternoon we went back to cocktail hour to show him off and meet all the other babies that had been 'delivered' to their families that day. Tomorrow would be very busy and that night would be very long...he just didn't want to go to sleep, but it was soooo worth it!