Day 2 - Sawadee kaa, Sua!

We woke up refreshed, today but with butterflies in our stomach.  At 9:40 we were to meet our social worker in the lobby, then at 10:30, they would bring our new little guy up to our room to meet us for the first time.  Kasan (our social worker) is amazing.  She is so kind, patient and speaks English very well.  There is one other family here from Norway also adopting through Holt Sahathai.  We met them this morning, too, and they brought them their little boy at the same time.  It all felt so natural and easy, really.  Caleb (nickname: Sua) was very shy at first, but warmed up as his social worker played together with us, including him in little games.  He loves cars and balls.  We played in the room for a while, then met the other family with the social workers in the hotel restaurant for lunch.  Caleb sat with us at our table, but like a typical two year old, was done and ready to walk around after a couple bites.  We walked out in the courtyard, looking at the fish and the pool.  They then brought him back up to our room for an hour of just being with us alone.  We played peek a boo, sang songs, changed his diaper (which they do fairly differently here than what we’re used to, so if he wasn’t terrified beforehand, we’re pretty sure that was a shocker) – all in all, though – no tears and he seemed to have a great time laughing and playing with cars, books and toys.  He is a little peanut and so cute when he laughs.  He felt more comfortable with Greg and leaned more towards interacting with him.  This was not a surprise to us, but more of what we had thought might happen because he is very attached to his social worker and his foster mom.  They left for his home at 2pm and we sat on the couch thinking, “what just happened?”.  We concluded that over analyzing, thinking that we should be feeling a certain way or that he should have reacted in some way isn’t helpful.  Simply giving the whole thing space to just be what it is for now and being thankful in it all is the best thing we can do.  This is unchartered territory.  We are amazed that everything went as smoothly as it did today. The social workers were surprised he didn’t cry (and we are relieved!)  Bless God!  So now off to grab something to eat that won’t make us sick (we’re both feeling a bit queasy). We hope to skype with the kiddos tonight. Then meet our other little kiddo again tomorrow morning for a shopping trip then off to meet his foster family. The sun is setting here and the lights of Bangkok are starting to flicker on.  Good night y’all :)

Sua playing with social worker

Looking at "rot" (cars) w/ Daddy on balcony

Looking at "pa" (fish) w/ Mommy in Courtyard