Day Nine: Our Miracle

"For this child I have prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition..."

1 Samuel 1:27

First and foremost, we thank God for Daniel Forrester! What an amazing day! God has truly blessed us with an amazing son and answered many other prayers.

Thank you to all of our family and friends who have prayed for us. We can tell you that God has listened.

Our Gotcha Day, or Encuentro as it is called in Colombia, was at 2:30 p.m. on May 30, 2011 at the ICBF office located near the El Dorado Airport.

We took our luggage to La Lanthana bed and breakfast and unpacked earlier in the morning and met Lucia, our escort to assist us through the adoption. After a quick lunch at the bed and breakfast, we headed to ICBF.

We were escorted to a room that was decorated with baby blue balloons and a colorful sign saying "Bienvenidos." We sat down on one of the sofas and chatted with Lucia while waiting.

Within a few minutes, a representative from ICBF and Daniel's nutritionist entered. His nutritionist said she had known Daniel since the beginning. We spent about twenty minutes talking with them about Daniel's routine, background, health and had an opportunity to ask various questions. One answered prayer was we received all of Daniel's records,which most of the time they do not provide. We also received photos from every month since his birth.

"He is very social, has a lot of energy and when you hold him he won't stand still," explained the nutritionist. "He'll try climbing up your chest and loves jumping up and down. He is a sweet boy. He loves hugs and kisses. He plays and crawls a lot."

After we asked all of our questions, they asked for my camera and left the room and disappeared into the adjacent office. We waited nervously.

A couple of minutes later, the nutritionist appeared holding Daniel. What an awesome moment! With tears in our eyes we were ready to hold our baby. He is our miracle.

Daniel was alert but obviously nervous. He was bundled up in a hooded jacket, tan pants, boots and holding a small blue ball. His dark brown eyes were wide open and taking in every detail.

Claudia and I held him with huge smiles on our faces. Honestly, I think we were all three a little nervous. I sat down on the sofa and let him stand up on my lap. That's when the ice was broken.

Daniel began to jump up and down on my lap. He stomped one of his feet and then the other. Then bounced up and down, showed a huge grin and began to laugh.

The rest of the day we spent at Lanthana, mostly in our room. Daniel continued jumping. laughing and totally washing away our concerns about his ability to transition.

He can crawl, clap his hands, babbles and completely breaks down when you tickle him. Claudia has played traditional Colombian games for children with him that his foster mother obviusly did too because Daniel already seems familiar with them. Our attachment process seems to be going very well and is another HUGE answered prayer.

I'm sure we'll make mistakes. We already fed him a bottle for 10 minutes, looking at each other approvingly of the method, only to realize that the bottle was closed and Daniel wasn't actually drinking any milk.

Our Family Adventure is just beginning.