Gotcha Day & Giving & Receiving Ceremony Monday July 9th and first couple of days

Hi everyone, I am sorry I am "behind" on the blog, but we finally got the card reader for our camera memory card and figured out how to send pics to the blog. It takes so long, so I will post as many as I can. We also wanted to give ourselves a few quiet days with Ian, not really going out and about much (well Sean goes to Gloria Jeans everyday for coffee).

Our "Gotcha Day" was Monday (the day we received him). It was overwhelming...a three hour drive to the orphanage, chitchat for about two hours, then...silent anticipation. There is one other family with us and they are adopting two girls. We pulled up to the orphanage all of us teary and nearly having heart attacks. We signed some papers, then we waited. No one told us what happened next, but we knew they were bringing us our babies. Our little boy (we are naming Ian Le Dinh Gahagan) was first. They brought him saying "Here he is". Sean held him first. I walked over and said "Hi Honey" and touched his hand and cheek. He did not cry. He actually smiled at me almost immediately. He let us hold him, kiss him (he loves the neck kisses) and has been so responsive and full of smiles. He was smiley all afternoon, then in the evening he was very upset for awhile (overtired, overstimulated and waking up from a very short nap not knowing where he was is my guess). He had a similar crying spell Tuesday evening and so far is being rocked to sleep (he has a lot of catching up to do as far as loving goes).

We were so rushed at the orphanage, because we were going to have the Giving & Receiving Ceremony (the Vietnamese adoption) right away. We saw his room and his bed. Someone laid him in his bed and it was so disturbing to me - I couldn't wait to get him out. The orphange director told me he likes his bottles very warm and he loves his cereal, he wakes up early, but after getting fed and a bath, he goes back to sleep. She said he is "easy" and we have found that to be true. He is full of smiles, stares at me, then Sean, then me, then Sean. He loves rolling over and over on the cool sheets on our bed (I think he has not been able to do that). He is strong and is going up on hands and knees and standing with support of course.

So we had the Giving & Receiving Ceremony Monday after the orphanage (so he is legally ours), had lunch with our agency people, drove back, got his passport photos, then Tuesday, Sean went to apply for his Vietnamese passport (with agency people) and we had his U.S. Visa medical appointment Tuesday. We were hoping to have the first of two U.S. Visa appointments Wednesday but it will be Monday. Then we will head to Hanoi to finish the process (second U.S. embassy appointment for his visa to come home). We will be in Hanoi at least a week. They told us to plan on a three week trip, but I think it might be shorter.

He is beautiful, so sweet and fun! We are both overwhelmed with all of it...the experience of this, the instant love, the way he is so ours....he is so smiley and cuddly and loves to cuddle with each of us. We are so blessed it is overwhelming....

Michelle

P.S. The pic of Sean in his sunglasses is about an hour or so after we got him - at the restaurant where we had lunch (he is fromVung Tau on the coast-it was a seaside restaurant). Isn't it amazing how smiley he is already? The one which looks like we are on a stage with red background was the Giving & Receiving Ceremony. The bottom one was when Sean first held him. I have found these pics are clickable. I can click on them to enlarge.