Gotcha!

Today is Amelia's 5 year Gotcha Day anniversary! I cannot believe it has been that long; yet it feels like she has always been our daughter.

Some highlights from that day:

We had to go to New York City (JFK Airport) to pick her up. It is three hours from here, and I was so nervous about traffic that we ended up being more than an hour early. Our Pastor drove us down, which was absolutely wonderful of him.

On the way down we stopped at a Cracker Barrel for dinner. It was a Monday, and the kids were 7,8, and 9 at the time. The day before the boys had watched football with Jamie, complete with all those funny beer commercials. When the server asked us for our drink orders, Nikita (7) asked without hesitation for a Bud Light. Like she has one all the time!! It was so embarrassing, the boys had told her it was a soda. Who knows, maybe they thought it was.

And then the plane finally arrived. It was after 9pm, so the airport was not very busy. We were let a little farther along, watching the people come out of the tunnel. We were starting to get REALLY nervous, because so many people came off but still no Amelia. My only clue that it was the right plane was a few ladies who walked out of the tunnel, went a little ways past us, and then stopped and kept watching us like they were waiting for something to happen. And then the flight crew and captain all came off. I was ready to panic at that point. But they all lined up, and then off came Amelia with her escorts, Amy and Bob. They had put her hair up in two pigtails, and she was wearing a red silk Asian outfit. Oh was she scared.

We spent some time getting information and paperwork from her escorts, and getting Amelia comfortable (as much as possible after 24 hours flying and being handed off to strangers), before we headed back home. The kids had made signs to hold up for her, so we took lots of pictures...none of which are in our computer unfortunately.

So, that's the short version of Amelia's homecoming. Five wonderful years later we still go to Cracker Barrel every year on this day to celebrate her homecoming. Happy Gotcha Day Amelia!!