Meetcha Day!!

Yesterday, December 11, we met the newest additions to the Cheney family!! All THREE of them! They completely took our breath away. I, Heather, was a nervous wreck! Our kids had woken up at 4:00 that morning due to jet lag, and I was worried that they would be clingy, whiny, and plain old tired when we went to meet our kids. But God totally gave us a PERFECT moment in the day and they did awesome! They were all just as excited as we were.

Meeting for the first time, was exciting and scary, for all of us I think. Our littlest screamed and cried in my arms for at least an hour. Which, I kept reminding myself, was a GOOD thing. We wanted him crying, because this meant that he has formed attachments with others, is able to attach, and will be able to transfer that attachment. However, since he is most attached to his oldest sister, it was difficult for her to see him crying. We kept telling her that he would be okay, and she could go play. Once he calmed down, she was able to really relax and play as well.

Eventually our littlest fell asleep (in my arms--which I SO loved:) and when he woke up, he didn't start crying immediately! And, he was letting my snuggle him, kiss him, and sing to him without crying!

Today, our second day visiting the transition home, was much better. Our littlest didn't cry nearly as much, and I got to feed him a bottle and snuggle him right away. I even got a few little smiles. And, he was able to sit with me, with his oldest sister in the room (yesterday he screamed every time he saw her, so we tried to stay out of sight as much as possible). Plus, our oldest seemed genuinely happy to let me take him today so that she could go do writing and drawing in the notebooks we brought.

Adam got a chance to hold the littlest today as well. He cried at first, but then settled right down. I got a chance to play with our oldest, which was so nice. I feel like we had a few bonding moments today.

Our middle child seems to be smiling a lot more than I had anticipated from the pictures we had received, which is nice. She is not quite as serious as I first thought. Bonding with her is going a little slower because she doesn't understand English. Luckily, our oldest understands quite a bit and is able to translate.

We will be going to COURT on Tuesday morning, Ethiopian time (so that's MONDAY NIGHT AT 10:00 PM CALIFORNIA TIME)!! PLEASE PRAY that the judge will see all of our paperwork completed, and give us custody of our kids.