One Year Ago - GOTCHA, BABY!

{This post was originally published one year ago, when we were adopting our sweet Carter}

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Today was indeed the day - Gotcha Day!  We met Niko at the orphanage around 9:00a, and got our boy dressed and ready to go!

Little does this boy know...he's going home for good!

 His 'American' outfit :)

We also got some photos of Carter with some people that we've grown to love!

We like this nanny very much!

And this is the man who said "I very glad you're here.  Beautiful."

We had some paperwork to do at the orphanage...just basically saying that we understand all of Carter's medical needs, and we are prepared to care for him.  This is what Carter thought of the paperwork :)

 We headed out to the van, and spent the next 2 hours or so there :)  We took Carter to the passport agency, and sat in the van to wait.  And wait.  And wait.  But Carter did GREAT!  He was very quiet, and very unsure of what was going on.  But he didn't fuss, he just sat quietly and looked around.

He liked looking out the window while we were driving :)  Nope...they don't usually use carseats here :)

For the first 20 minutes or so, Carter was pretty skeptical, and he just squeezed on to his little birdie.  He slowly started to open up...he drank some juice from his sippy, played with some toys, and started to chatter a little bit.

When it was finally time for us to go into the passport agency, I signed two documents, they took his picture, and that was it.  2 hours of waiting for 5 minutes of paperwork :)  But, it's done!  And Niko says we should have our passport by Friday for sure.

On our drive back to the apartment, we had one tired guy.  I'm sure it was the car ride, and the craziness of the day.  We got back, and tried to feed him some stage 3 baby food.  He has never taken food from us before.  Never.  So we thought that it was very possible that he may not eat until tomorrow when he's reeeeally hungry.  Well....here's the evidence...

Yep - he ate like a pro!  A whole jar of baby food!  He wasn't hesitant - he wasn't skeptical - he just ate it right up, and drank about half of his sippy cup, too.

We tried for a nap afterwards - but there was just too much to take in!  He couldn't possibly be expected to sleep when there was a whole apartment to explore!  It may come back to bite us tonight...but it's okay.

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It's officially official...Carter Benjamin is at home, with his family - right where he belongs.  As I type this he's getting crazy with his daddy on the floor.  He's laughing more than he's ever laughed before - and I wonder if he knows.  I wonder if he gets it.  I wonder if he understands that this is a new beginning for him.  A new life.  A hope and a future!

Nothing better, people.  Nothing better.

One Thing I Know For Sure: New beginnings...beautiful, right?!