Gotcha Day

Today's the day we've waited for....Grace's Gotcha Day! We will celebrate November 22 for the rest of her life. Even though she's been a McCraw for a few months now, today was the day we "got her" forever. It still seems very very surreal. We've been here before. We've visited her. But tonight she's sleeping In our room. She's ours. We don't have to take her back to her nursery. 

When we got here, she was sitting on the sofa looking at our family picture. She got so excited! She pointed to me in the picture and said, "Mama!" Then, touched me and said, "Mama!" It's like she was thinking the picture has come to life. Then she did the same for Daddy. It was so so precious. They've braided her hair with beads and it's adorable. This is a special "going home 'do" the girls get and she loves it. I tried to get a good pic of her shirt. It says, "best day ever". Yep. It sure is. 

We played in our room with her for a while and then went to the Baptist mission for lunch. The baptist mission started here in 1946 and it's where John and Dixie began their ministry. There's a little restaurant inside as well as a place to shop for items made by Haitians. She nibbled on some chicken nuggets but wasn't into them nearly as much as our boys. After that, they took us up to Ft. Jacques. That's where they're building the new orphanage. It's so beautiful! Someone from the states even donated AstroTurf so they have a beautiful playground. It was neat to tour it and watch her play. 

By the time we got back, it was close to 5pm. Grace is still a big napper and she tried to sleep every time we got back in the car but it only resulted in 3 tiny cat naps. She was completely exhausted. Besides it being a tiring day physically, it was also a big day for her emotionally. She had a very hard time calming down tonight. Robby and I just traded off with her and she passed out about 7:00. This is just the beginning of her grieving process. Even though we're giving her a family and a wonderful new life, we're taking her from all she's ever known. She will have times of great sadness. Sadness combined with exhaustion ain't pretty though. I am fully confident she will be just fine and back to her cheerful self in the morning. 

This morning on the plane, the LORD lead me to Isaiah 25:1 and it blessed me so much. Such a perfect way to sum up our day:

O Lord, I will honor and praise your name, for you are my God. You do wonderful things! You planned them long ago, and now you have accomplished them.