The GOTCHA Cake

When we were going through the adoption process with Mari, I did not care for the term 'gotcha day.' Some people used 'family day' and other names I forget, but the word 'gotcha' seemed to me at the time like something you would shout while playing hide and seek. But after we got Mari, and added Josie to our family a few years later, I really started to like the term. The day we got 'ya, so glad we got 'ya....so much meaning and emotion in just a few words. We started celebrating the girls' special day with a cake, spelling GOTCHA out in various ways. At first I made the cakes, but as they got older they liked to pick one out at the grocery store or bakery. It was always interesting to explain to the person writing on the cake about GOTCHA. "We are celebrating the day we got them, they are both adopted." Then a light bulb would go off.....oh, I see! Yesterday was Mari's 'gotcha day. Eight years ago we met a chubby little 7-month old sweetheart in a hotel lobby in Guatemala City. After signing some papers and making plans for the next day's visit to the US Embassy to finalize things, the adoption reps left and we took her upstairs to our room. We had no idea in the world what we were doing! But anyone who has children, by birth or adoption, knows that none of really KNOW what we are doing through any of it, right? I decided not to bake or buy a cake for yesterday since we have all been sick (especially Mari, still on antibiotics for sinus and ear infections). That did not go over well. So later today we are going to bake a cake together. A fun Saturday afternoon activity stuffed with more meaning than the girls are capable of understanding at this point in their lives. Here are some shots of our cakes from past years....enjoy.