Gotcha Day and what's next

First thing is gotcha day went wonderfully well. God's hands were ALL over it. I firmly and emphatically believe that was because there were so many prayers from all of your faithful support. God does inexplicable miraculous works, yes he does. Prayer is the method God has ordained to call upon Him to release His power through His people. God did it today! It was His power. But you all played an critically important role. I don't even know how to express our heartfelt gratitude.

When we arrived at the Civil Affairs building it was around 9:20. We knew Arayla wouldn't be there until 10:15. Our guide Emma led us on a half hour walk around some of the city. Traffic was sparse in this part of the city so this was a very peaceful time to see some of the city and take in some Chinese culture. When we got back to the Civil Affairs office there was another adopting American family there. A few minutes later a busload of adopting American families arrived. Some of them we recognized as those in the hotel room next to us. The CA office was quickly full of families. It was crowded! Then the children started arriving one by one. From that point on, it was a very loud and chaotic room. Arayla arrived with two orphanage representatives after we had waited about 20 minutes, We had been so calm after our peaceful walk. Now the nerves and stress was up a few notches, for obvious reasons not the least of which being I don't like crowds. Miraculously, Arayla did not cry at all. She let both Keyanna and me hold her and hold her little hands as she did her "walking" that isn't really walking. For those who don't know yet, Arayla has hydrocephalus since birth. Her development is very delayed, which explains why she's 3 and is not walking yet. Though she can't do it yet on her own, she LOVES to walk. She holds both my index fingers in her two little fists and toddles all around the place. She could do this for hours, which is brutal on my back from bending over. We found quickly that Arayla can get angry and show it loudly if you don't keep walking her and decide to pick her up before she's ready to be picked up.

After about 30 minutes to sign guardianship papers and talk with the orphanage ladies, we're back on our way to our hotel. Arayla did fabulous on the van ride. However she is very active like a typical 3 year old. Doesn't like sitting in one place for long, and China doesn't have child seats to strap kids down in a vehicle. Back at our hotel room we got her out of the orphanage clothes, and she played and ate snacks happily with us. She did wonderful. Lots of smiles and talking, laughing. But it is obvious all this time that she sadly displays many signs of neglect. She has some habits and coping behaviors that will probably be with her for a long time. She has a hand motion she does where she waves her hand back and forth close to her face and follows the motion with her eyes. We think this is a way she has self-taught to soothe and entertain herself when she has been neglected and deprived of human touch and interaction. Although she rarely cries (really so far not at all), she can get quite loud expressing her displeasure and demanding her way verbally. It's going to be a hard road ahead, on the rest of this trip first and then ongoing into Arayla's life. The symptoms from her hydrocephalus are definitely showing in her physical development. The 3 years of lacking emotional comfort and unconditional love just makes the situation worse.

I have to get to sleep because we have a very long difficult day ahead of us tomorrow (Tuesday, November 11). Please keep us in your prayers. We have a lot of hours we'll have to be in the van driving. We are starting early, 7:45 AM and probably won't return to the hotel until after 9 PM. Please pray for Arayla to be at ease. God can do mighty miracles. We need to pray. Thank you so much.

Troy