Wednesday, February 04, 2009

Gotcha Day

The morning of our Gotcha Day in Ethiopia.

After a nearly sleepless night of finishing Embassy paperwork, nervously pacing around the guesthouse, and listening to the feral dogs of Ethiopia bark through the night... we awoke to this beautiful sight.

Our referral picture July 2007

Josh on our original Gotcha Day in Ethiopia. Our first meal together at the Hilton.

Josh now:


Jameson in her referral picture:


Jameson on our Gotcha Day in Ethiopia.


Jameson now:


Our first week home:
The Ellerbee Eight Now:


I'd like to say that we had this huge celebration on our first Gotcha day... but we didn't. We had frozen pizza, and I fell asleep. Oh, what an exciting life we lead. We are going to have a little bit bigger celebration on Feb 10th which is the one year anniversary of the kids homecoming. I guess that's only fitting because that's the day we were all together for the first time... the day we really became a family.
Photobucket

5 comments:

misschris said...

Thanks for sharing these pictures, Gina. You guys have a lot to celebrate on Feb 10... cupcakes sound mandatory.

Chris said...

Wow a year already. I remember thinking about you while you were in Ethiopia and being jalous :)
I love all of your pictures and your family picture is so beautiful.
Happy Gotcha day anniversary

Rebecca said...

Your post brought tears to my eyes...as many of them do. I'll have to remember those sentiments when Ruby, Elizabeth, and Nora have trying days. This was beautifully said. And happy one year!

Laurel said...

I didn't realize that we had the same Gotcha Day. We met our children on February 4th, but had to spend 6 weeks with them in Ghana, before we could bring them home on March 18th. We, too, decided to celebrate Homecoming Day, because that was the day they met 8 of their 10 siblings.

What a year we've both had!!!

Blessings,

Laurel

Linda said...

Might Bill & I be included? We would love to. I too remember this time last year. Being left behind was hard on us all while we waited.