In the days leading up to the adoption being finalized, I just had this little feeling that something crazy was going to happen. You know how when you get your kids all dressed up for a picture and you just have this feeling that they are going to get dirty somehow or that their hair is going to get all messed up .... that is the kind of feeling that I had. You know what I mean...when you work really hard at something but you just have this feeling that after all of your hard work...something might go terribly wrong.... Well...
It was an awesome feeling to get that email that said "Gotcha Day" was going to be August 10. In some ways it seemed like we had been waiting forever for this day and in other ways it seemed like it went by kinda fast. From the time that we were matched with Taylor until now has been a very quick process after all of the "waiting time" that we have had overall. From the date of that recent email about Travel Approval until "Gotcha Day" was about 10 days time.
I wanted to make sure that Taylor had the cutest bow and a really sweet dress. The kids and I picked out gifts to give her so that she would have something to hold onto from this day. I wanted everything to be perfect. :-)
But still I had this feeling.... Honestly, I didn't think too much about the feeling but it would pop into my head every once in a while.
We have had a very busy schedule this summer, and this past weekend was our last time to work before the Big Day. The weekend was packed with last minute meetings and classes to finish before we headed out.
On Friday night, we sat down with three other families at our center for a dinner get-together. Taylor had been begging me for more food, but I knew that she had already eaten way too much. She had also already gotten down from the table, and we have a rule in our house that after you get down you can't ask for more. Anyways, she kept begging, but I kept my ground and continued to tell her "no." Once when I had my back turned, she reached up as far as she could to try and get something off of the table to eat. I quickly saw her just as the table was about to lose its balance, and I told her "no." She usually is pretty obedient, but less than 5 minutes later she did it again. But this time unfortunately I didn't see anything until it was too late.
That round, glass table came tumbling over. Taylor fell on the ground, and the table fell on top of her...with food and plastic cups and bowls also falling to the ground. I know that I screamed! My first sight of her was that she was lying on the ground with the glass table under her chin (thankfully the table did not break). And I screamed, "Oh my goodness...it's on her neck!!!" Joel quickly scooped her up and took her into the next room. He was reassuring me that she was ok and that she was a tough girl. But then I saw it. I gasped and frightened Joel with my shocked face. This Momma was in tears and was in panic-mode. If you have read any of my previous posts about other accidents in our home--this one was no different. I don't handle these things very well. I think if Joel was not around when these things happened, my adrenaline would kick in and I would be able to take care of things--I hope.
Taylor had the ugliest looking black eye. In fact, I couldn't see much of her eye because it was swelling up fast. Here it was Friday night...with a Gotcha Day of Monday morning. I looked at Joel and said..."I knew this was going to happen!!!" Honestly I was worried. Joel thought I was worried about how the pictures were going to look, but that was the last thing on my list. I was worried about what people were going to think when she had been in our care. Of course it was an accident, but you still can't control how people think of things. (The picture below was taken the day before "Gotcha Day".)
We have many things to be thankful for. 1. Praise the Lord--the table didn't fall right on her eye.. or on her nose... or on her teeth...or on her neck. It fell about an inch under the eye. Things could have been very serious, but the damage was very minimal. 2. There were other families there to console me and to back us up if someone had any questions about the incident. 3. No one questioned us. Every time that someone asked about her eye and we told them that she had a falling accident--they all completely understood. (The pictures below were on "Gotcha Day")
She is starting to look much better now, but all of her adoption papers and her American visa are going to have this cute racoon picture. We will forever remember that night and how God took care of everything.
We are so blessed to call her "our daughter". Really we had already been telling local people here that she was our daughter, but now we can say it and know that she 100% is our daughter FOREVER! We can't wait for all of you to meet her and for her to meet you. I have another feeling that... God is going to use her in a very mighty way, and that is my prayer for her. I can't wait to say to Joel again, "I knew this was going to happen"...but with a completely different look on my face.
God is good....all the time. He was watching over Taylor and her accident was a reminder to you that He is in control. As you stated, it could have been much worse but God sent an angel to make sure she wasn't really hurt. I think He sent the same angel that took care of you when you were about two years old and were lying on your death bed. We all have so many things to be thankful for and sometimes God has to remind us that He is in control and takes care of us at all times. We can hardly wait to meet Taylor and show her how glad we are for her to be a member of the family Also, we are so excited that we will be able to see you, Joel, Isaac, Autumn and Stephen again. It doesn't seem right that Stephen was just a little baby the last time you left to go back to China. We love you guys so much and are so excited that we will see you again very soon.
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