This weekend, on Saturday, Sonja and I attended the final training class sponsored by Holt that is required before we are able to travel to China. The training primarily focuses on helping both you and your new child in making the transition as smooth as possible. There were six couples in class with three couples matched with children from Korea and three couples matched with children from China. Based on what I could ascertain, all the couples were thinking no more than 6 months left of wait time before they would travel to pick up their child. One thing is for sure…everyone is about paper worked out and are getting excited for “Gotcha Day”. Many of the concerns we had were also shared by other couples including but not limited to:
1. How long will it take for one or both parents to bond with the child…more importantly how quickly or how long will it take for Zoe to bond with us and our family?
2. Zoe will be 4 years old or there abouts when we pick her up….how quickly will she begin to understand English so she feels comfortable in her new setting.
3. How long and how quickly will we be able to introduce new foods into her diet versus what she is used to having for meals in China. Want to make sure we continue providing some of her favorite meals so she does not lose her culture
4. The difference in times zones, they are approximately 14 hours ahead…there night time in China is our daytime here in Nebraska.
So the class brought out some very good points…some we had thought of and some that were new to us. We had two couples who had adopted before so they shared a number of tidbits that were very helpful.
I think the part that was of keen interest to me was what is affectionately termed as “Gotcha Day.” This is when the parents first get to meet and take their new child back to their hotel before making their trip back home to the U.S. I have seen a number of “Gotcha Day” video’s on You Tube based on other parents experiences and the children look scared and not sure what is going on….Sonja, Nathaniel and I will look like Herman, Lily and Eddie Munster…as lovable as we may be our first appearance to Zoe will probably be very scary for her.
So the training was good and we had a good facilitator (Bonnie Mayer)…it answered many questions we had. It was another milestone moment for Lily, Eddie and I….just joking….it is another milestone for us…we continue to meet a number of very nice people along the way…so far it has been a memorable journey….
Until next time…
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