So, now that we are all crying, Blake reaches for Theodore.;

  I walk over to the orphanage director who is sobbing and she says An An (his nickname) is loved by all. He is precious and we are all going to miss him terribly.” 

You see our little one is the first soul this year to be adopted from that orphanage. There are 45 babies and children there at the Wuzhou Orphanage. We had no idea that this wasn’t something she does each week on “Gotcha Day.”  For instead she made this journey on a 2 1/2 hour train ride for the first time in the 21 Mondays of 2016.  Last year, she did it 6 times. 

Our time was done there as fast as we could blink. 

And those few miles back to the hotel seemed like 30 miles. We had a flashback of leaving the hospital with Alexandra 12 years ago. She screamed her head off the entire way home where those few miles seemed like 30 as well. We wondered why in the world that hospital would allow someone like us to leave – we didn’t know what we were doing, but we did have love for that baby girl. 

And it feels the same with Theodore.  We don’t know quite what we are doing, but our hearts are full of love and we will do all we can to figure this out.  

Then we thought we’d try a bath. 

AND BUBBLES!! He would catch one and smack it between his hands. The first nugget of trust. 

And then… 

HE SMILED!!! Oh he smiled!!

YES, HE SMILED!!

And we blew bubbles and caught bubbles over and over again. 

Until …..   

HE LAUGHED!! Now this ranks as a favorite moment in my life. 

To be continued…..