Due to a lost suitcase (yes...mine...anyone who knows me well finds this quite funny) and
our driver arriving late to the airport, it was well into the wee hours of Sunday morning when we finally made it to the guest house...completely exhausted. We slept briefly and at 9am the CWA driver arrived to take us to the transition home to get our baby. At this point, I'm not sure any of us even knew where we were. We were so tired that we were almost numb and everything seemed so foggy...as if it were happening in a dream. We arrived at the transition home, they handed us baby Caleb and we were allowed to take a few pictures, and that was it. Poor Caleb was so afraid. You could look in his eyes and see the terror...he hadn't seen white faces or heard English - I can only imagine what he was feeling...so scary. On the van ride back to the guest house, he didn't make a sound...nothing. There was only one huge tear running down his face. It was so sad because we could sense his fear and he was just shutting down - as I'm sure he's done many times before. At that point, reality began to set in for us...what other sad, lonely, scary things has this little one dealt with at such an early age?
It was surreal and I would have loved more time to check out the foster home and process things...but I think they attempt to minimize the disruption to the kids there by making the visits very brief. So, in less than an hour, we were back at the guest home staring at our new son and beginning the process of getting to know him.
Above are a few pictures of Caleb's first hours with us. What a day...to finally meet our baby - we had been staring at his picture and praying for him for so long. He was very tense and his fear was palpable...and heart-breaking. By the end of the day though, we did begin to see some smiles and he started to relax...but it will be a long process. He has to learn to trust us to meet his needs in a way they should have always been met...poor little man has been through so much already and it will take some time for his little heart to heal.
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