Got Him!!

All I can really say is WOW!!  I can't believe we have our boy.

We woke up early for breakfast and we were all a bit stressed.  We sat down with the kids this morning and asked Claire to explain exactly how she felt when she was in Sean's shoes 17 months ago.  She of course explained that she was very scared.  She also disclosed that she thought we were robbers!  Not sure if she was trying to be funny or if she was serious but it led to a good discussion of how as a family we where going to make things as easy as we could for him.  As we were all getting dressed, Claire said "I think we should pray" and she quickly offered up a prayer for Sean.  So proud of her and all she has learned over the last year and a half.

We headed down to breakfast and ran into our guide Lynne about 30 minutes before anticipated.  She told us that she had received a call from Sean's teacher (my heart lept into my throat for a minute) who said that they would be early so she asked if we could leave early.  Leave early we did.  It was pretty quiet in the van as we all were thinking about the change our family would be undergoing.  We went up to the adoption office and we thought we'd be placed in a room and Sean would be brought to us.  We more or less stumbled into the room where he was waiting.  Our guide turned us around and asked us to go to another room.  Sean followed us in.  Here is our first family picture.

After doing the paperwork we left the adoption center and headed back to our hotel.  The kids presented Sean with his DS and new clothes and then we headed out to explore Harbin.  We have just missed the Ice Festival for which Harbin is famous.  There are still ice sculptures out, because its so cold no ice could melt, and I think we'll head out again tonight to look at the sculptures in the dark.

    We had a quick lunch, a little shopping at Walmart for hotel room snacks and have just been hanging out.  Sean has been doing math problems on his DS, looking at pictures and repeating people's names and becoming a master of Temple Run and Batman.  Already an American boy!!  

When we got Claire, one of the first pictures I took of her was of the kids all together and holding hands.  It's one of my favorites.  I had that opportunity today and I'm posting it here because I think it says it all.