Meeting Malachi

I won't waste time with the details of our morning, as that isn't what
you want to read, nor is it what I want to write. So, to be brief…. We
ate breakfast, had lots more yummy coffee, met Rachel (director of the
Transition Home), had lunch, then …… drum roll please….

We met Malachi !!!!!

All the families entered into the home's courtyard beyond the ever
famous "green gates" (which I tripped over). We were then introduced
to our children alphabetically by our last names. So, being "B", we
were first on the list. As I sit here trying to sum up an emotion, or
even all of the emotions that I felt when I first saw him …. I'm not
sure how to form any of it into words. My heart began to pound, my
eyes formed a tear or two, my mind raced with wonder and awe, my heart
overflowed with love and joy.

Malachi is beautiful !!!! He has the biggest darkest eyes, a cute
little "fro" (which will be gone tomorrow), and perfectly perfect
skin. He's got these long skinny fingers, and cheeks that you HAVE to
kiss. He's little….well, light that is.

He wasn't too sure what to think about us though. He didn't really
cry. He fussed a bit, and was certainly confused by us I think. When
it came time for me to pass him on to Aaron, he buried his head in my
shoulder and clung to my arm. Ahhhhh, too bad. Sorry Aaron – you'll
have to wait till later. Hehe. Well, finally Aaron talked me into a
turn. He let Aaron hold him a bit. It took all of about 5 more minutes
though to realize he was just hungry and tired. (I think he'll be
hungry a lot for a while.) So, I got my first shot at feeding him his
bottle. He's so curious … always looking everywhere there is movement.
But for a few brief moments, he looked into my eyes, clung harder to
my arm (especially when he got the feeling I was giving him to someone
else … really, I was just sitting him up b/c he was choking), then
nestled into my arm and dozed to sleep. I held him for a while as he
slept, but then felt I should put him down so I could photo and play
with the other children. The sad part about this, is that he then
slept the rest of our time there. We woke him up about 5 minutes
before we left to say goodbye. So, all in all, we had about 30 minutes
with him today. But it was a precious 30 minutes at that!

We went in to watch him sleep many times. He's so quiet! (Good thing,
since he'll be in our room!) He does that cute little sucking thing in
his sleep – like he's dreaming of a bottle or something. So cute!

Well, tomorrow is another day. And after a night of sleep, I think
that my emotions will take shape better. Leaving without him left me
with a strange feeling. BUT, we go back tomorrow afternoon …. Only
this time, he's coming with !