Meeting Tyson

We met Tyson on Wednesday. We met with our case worker to take care of some paperwork, then we headed up to the next floor to meet him in a playroom. As we turned the corner on the stairs, there he was, standing and holding his foster mother's hand. We went into the room and played with him for an hour and also asked questions (translated by the case worker) about him. Tyson thought it was hilarious when I dumped the helmet full of balls on my head. He was pretty easy going and very polite (bowed to us to say hello). We also met his foster father which was nice.

It really was a surreal experience. We had seen photos and video of him. In fact, some of them were taken in the same room we were in. But, it was weird that we could reach out and touch him, hold him, play with him. It was also interesting to be there with his foster mom because it felt a little like you were playing with someone else's kids, which we kind of were.

Our case worker told us that we would meet him again the following afternoon. When we went to meet him, he was asleep on the floor. Earlier in the afternoon, all his little friends around his neighborhood had come over to say goodbye, so he was worn out and had missed his normal nap time.

We received Tyson on Friday as we were heading for the airport. It was pretty emotionally charged, as all of our children's hand-offs have been. There really is no smooth, easy way to do it. At one point, our case worker told us to get in the van and then she just grabbed Tyson, put him in our lap, and closed the door, and the driver pulled away.

I feel a little bad in this picture because Tyson doesn't know that in moments, his life will drastically change forever. We are so grateful for the love that the foster family showed to Tyson. This is the 12th child they have fostered and by the photos they gave us, they took him all over the place and gave him all their love and attention. It takes special people to give this service, because they know that in the end, their heart is going to break.

As we drove away, this is the look Tyson gave us for the first 10 seconds, trying to process his confusion about what just happened. He looked back to see his foster family fading in the distance and started to scream and sob. I had to turn away from this picture because I couldn't keep it together either. I instantly felt a great compassion for the tough transition that was going to happen, that Tyson would only be in his home country for a few more hours before leaving for a very long time. After about 10 minutes, an ambulance distracted him and then he looked at me and fell asleep on my chest. When he woke up 30 minutes later at the airport, he was smiles and curious and we were able to play in the airport and learn more about him.