November 4, 2019 – GOTCHA DAY!
We all woke up around 7:00am that morning, in our Ladyville house to the sun and beautiful clouds in the sky! Knowing we’d be driving and walking all around Belize City, I couldn’t help but say a quick prayer of thanks for the most perfect day.
I took this picture at 8:36am of Levi looking out the window and I remember thinking today is the day! If only I could have been inside his head at this moment. So much for a 4 year old to take in and process.
We left the house and headed to Belize City about 20 minutes away. We arrived at the Courtenay Coye, LLP Attorneys at Law office at 10:57am to pick up our adoption papers. These papers basically gave us the legal right to pick up Ashley, Isaac and Israel with our written custody agreements!
This process was seamless because of all the prior preparation. We were in and out of there within 15 minutes. It was about 11:15am and we still had a couple of hours before our appointment at the Department of Human Services (DHS). We decided to find the tackle shop in Belize City. The coming days would be a lot of waiting; waiting on blood work, waiting on medical results, etc. so we were about to have a lot of free time on our hands. We would spend the majority of that time in the house because we were very mindful of our budget. Knowing this ahead of time, I did a lot of research to find the perfect house — a house with a variety of things to keep us busy. We could swim, fish off the back porch, cook all of our meals and have fun family movie nights.
We arrived at the Belize Hook & Tackle at 11:30am. This place was hard to find and we ended up driving around the block probably 5 times before finding it! Once there, we bought a few cheap fishing poles that we ended up using multiple times on the trip at multiple houses and we even carried them home to Memphis with us. We also purchased hooks, weights and a few other items.
At 12:15pm, the 5 of us arrived at Bird’s Isle Restaurant for lunch, one of a few times we went out to eat that entire month. This restaurant was at the end of a dirt road and I remember Matt and I being like, where are we going?! We pulled up to an outdoor restaurant under a thatched roof right on the sea! 
We left the restaurant with to-go boxes of food, wondering if the big kids had eaten anything that morning. We found out later they had been at DHS since 10am and were in fact hungry! After eating, watching fish swim in the sea and the boats drive by, we loaded the van and drove to find the Department of Human Services.
After locating the building, Matt pulled into a nearby parking lot and we all got out and started walking to the Department of Human Services at 1:38pm.
This was it! At 2:00pm, Ashley, Isaac and Israel came running down the hall into the main waiting area at DHS. Ashley running straight to Matt and the boys to me. For those that do not know our story, Matt and I had met the kids many times prior on our mission trips. Ashley said she never felt weird or out of place, but rather immediately feeling like family that day. We all exchanged hugs and walked to a private office to go over paperwork and medical reports with their social worker who then handed over all this and their birth certificates!! Together with the social worker, we all walked to and through an indoor strip mall to get their passport pictures taken. We would need these for their medical exam appointment the next day and for the embassy meeting. Looking back at these pictures below, I remember thinking how sweet it was that all the kids grabbed hands to walk together.
We arrived back to the van at 2:46pm. Notice in the picture, they came with 2 backpacks each…that’s it. Ashley has one on her back and the purple one in front of her. Isaac has one on his back and one in front. Israel’s two are on the ground in the front. A lifetime of items in two backpacks. Can you even imagine?
Our first family photos!
3:07 pm: The first stop after that was the Belize Sign Monument for our first family photos!!!
By 4:00pm, we pulled into Hopewell Children’s Home for a very sweet and memorable goodbye party. Although the atmosphere was quiet different than on previous trips feeling a bit of resentment from the other kids in the air, I knew it was a much needed departure for Ashley, Isaac and Israel. PLUS! Ms. V (director and girl’s house mom) got a precious cake made for them! We hung around in the upstairs screened-in patio (the one Hope’s mission trip participants helped build years earlier) eating cake and talking.
On the way home, we picked up pizza from a tiny road side building – Breda O’s Pizza Hut and back at the house by 6:30pm.
Quick swim, pizza and movie night. Matt and I sat down finally for a moment to breathe!
Here are some reflections from the kids:
Ashley – She remembered meeting the little kids for the first time and was really excited. Remembering how she wanted to give Charlee a hug, but Charlee was too shy and hid behind Matt. Ashley mentioned the goodbye party at Hopewell eating some cake. She remembers Mia being stuck to my back (as I had her in a carrier for most of the day)! Ashley says her favorite house was Casa Del Mar – the house we brought them home to — saying the room was really cold and had a big bed. Matt had to sleep in front of their doors to make them feel comfortable that first night. Ashley recalling feeling a little scared to be in a room by herself in a house she had never been to.
Isaac – He remembered Levi kept hitting his head on the way out of DHS (I guess Levi felt so overwhelmed and didn’t know what to do with that energy :). Isaac mentioned coming back to the house and swimming, something I had forgotten we did that day.
Israel – He remembered the food…all the food! First he mentioned the takeout boxes we had in the car from Bird’s Isle, the cake at Hopewell and the pizza at the house! Israel said Ashley wanted more cake!
Charlee – There was a conversation her and Ashley had that stuck out in her mind, one where she saw a frog on the sidewalk and wanted to pick it up and Ashley said it was gross. Charlee also mentioned how much she loved living at Casa Del Mar.
Levi – He mentioned two things: when him and Israel walked holding hands out of DHS and how much he liked eating the cake, saying that was his favorite part.
Mia – We will have to ask her in a couple of years!
Awesome memories <3