Reinard Family: Corban's Gotcha Day

July 13th is Corban's Gotcha Day. For those who don't know what that is....it's the day we "gotcha". So 7 years ago this past Saturday, Marjorie and I met a scared, tired, hungry Corban in Dulles Airport in Washington DC. The first few days were rough. I seriously can't believe he's been part of our family for 7 years....it seems like yesterday. I can't imagine our family without him. He went away a few weeks ago for his first overnight camp for two days....and the house just wasn't the same....the energy level was decreased by A LOT.

So every year we celebrate our boys Gotcha Day. Different adoptive families celebrate in different ways. We don't give presents. We "do something" together as a family. Usually this has meant a fun relaxing day with some mini-golf and ice cream and a nice dinner. This year we did something different.

(This is kind of in two parts so make sure you follow all the way down.)

So last year my parents were given a gift certificate to the Gateway Clipper fleet in Pittsburgh for a river cruise....for the entire family. It's taken all of us more than a year to coordinate schedules and make it happen. So my parents, my brother and his family, my aunt and uncle, and my roudy brood, set off on one of their boats for lunch and tour up and down the rivers around Pittsburgh.

IT WAS AWESOME. The kids had so much fun on the boat. Corban, our creative one, was a pirate, firing cannons at every water craft out on a gorgeous afternoon. The kids touched every corner of that boat. In fact Marjorie and Tobiah almost were in the control room....that they were suppose to be in.

One thing I learned was that the fountain at the point doesn't use water from any of the three rivers but from an underground glacial aquafer. How cool is that?

Now....my parents are looking for a new home. My dad retired back in January, and their entire married life (39 years) they've lived in a home provided by the church that they've served. So they're looking for their first house. Which means....that this is probably Corban's last Gotcha Day at Grandma and Pa Pa's. This is significant because his very first Gotcha Day was at Grandma and Pa Pa's....so we have some special photos of that first day or so at their house. So we decided to recreate those pictures this weekend (we also did two pictures of Tobiah from when he came....you'll remember that we immediately went to Children's Hospital with him....so we don't have many at my parents house.....we're gonna hold off on Tobiah's pictures till later.)

So below is the original picture, then the new picture. We did our best.