Gotcha Day

We had the fun experience of celebrating "Gotcha Day" with some new friends of ours yesterday. It was the celebration of the day when they met their daughter for the first time in China 4 years ago. I learned that this day is often even more important than the child's actual birthday...which after celebrating with them I can now understand.

Lily got to sit right next to the guest of honor at a tasty Pei Wei lunch. Lily loves using the chopsticks there.

Then they joined us for a local production of Peter and the Wolf. Here are the girls with the wolf...and Lily's favorite, the cat.


They had fun afterward at the "instrument petting zoo"...such a fun concept.



Lily waited in line to play a trumpet, but chickened out at the last minute. That did this mama's heart good because I wasn't sure the sanitizer they were using was up to the challenge of flu season 2009.

Then Lily got a hold of the camera for a while.


Ouch, that flash must have hurt!

Later, our small group met at their home and we got to watch their "Gotcha Day" video. It was so moving. I was glad that something funny was said just as I was about to cry or I would have totally lost it. You should have seen all the kiddos lined up on the couch watching so intently. Most of their discussion was over hair length and who looked like a boy or not. So funny.

We also got to thumb through the amazing "Life book" scrapbook that her mommy has been making. I've never seen anything quite like it. Such a special day.

So, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised when Lily ran into our room early this morning exclaiming that she wished she had been born in China.