Tonight was the season premiere of The Little Couple! The show kicked things off with a bang--Bill & Jen are adopting! Here is a recap of the first episode aired tonight, "The Golden Sun":
- Bill and Jen meet with Martha, founder of Rainbow Kids, an international adoption agency for children with special needs. She shows them pictures of Ben, a little boy of about 2 years old (now 3) from China with dwarfism. It's love at first sight for Jen!
- Martha explains to them that if they fill out some forms and go through the proper motions, they can put Ben on hold as soon as next week. They waste no time, calling the adoption agency the next morning.
- Tina, from the adoption agency, calls with news that they have secured Ben's file so that no one else can adopt him.
- At work in the NICU, there is a code red when a baby's feeding tube comes out. Luckily, Jen is able to avert the crisis and get thing sunder control.
- Bill & Jen head to St. Louis to meet with Tina and discuss the adoption in person.
- Tina informs them that Ben's traditional Chinese name ("Ben" is just a nickname given for privacy reasons during the adoption process), pronounced REE-GEN, is translated to mean "Golden Sun".
- Tina shows them a few videos: one of Ben walking, one of Ben using sign language and one of Ben being a little sneaky and steal a cookie off his neighbors plate!
- After their meeting, Bill & Jen go out for some lunch and try to process everything that's going on!
"And His Name Is...".
- Since Ben is from China, Bill and Jen decide to try and learn some Mandarin Chinese, in order to be able to communicate with him.
- Jen's parents are coming over for dinner, and Bill decides to cook traditional Chinese fair--dumplings, to be exact! Jen's parents also bring some takeout to go along with Bill's cooking.
- In Bill's family, the name William is a family tradition. Bill state's that he would like to name Ben that, and although Jen has some other ideas, such as Owen, she too likes William (as long as he has a nickname other than Bill--that would be too confusing, she says!)
- The adoption agency encourages Bill and Jen to send Ben a care package, with pictures of his new parents, his house, etc. In order to do that, they first have to pick out a bedroom for Ben! They ultimately decide on Jen's office (she moves her things and begins sharing an office with Bill).
- After 2 years of trying, Jen receives the sad news from their surrogacy doctor that her body has hit the end of the road, and she won't be able to do any more egg retrievals. With the door to surrogacy closed, they grieve a bit, but set their minds on the exciting adoption.
- It's time to lay out and set-up Ben's bedroom! The room transforms from Jen's office to a bedroom complete with bunk beds in about an hour.
- To couple come to a wall with decorating--Bill wants to put up a Giant's football blanket on his bed, but Jen rationalizes that he's only a toddler, and he'll have plenty of room for football decor when he's 13.
- Jen comes up with a much more versatile theme for the bedroom, focusing on nautical & sea creatures! The final look is very "boyish & preppy", in Jen's words.
- Bill's point of view differs a bit...in his words, "By the time she was done, it looked like a fish tank housing 200 fish."
- Jen gathers some scrapbooking supplies to give her photo album a unique touch.They finish it off with a heartfelt letter to their future son.
- It's official! The couple decide on a name for Ben--William, keeping with the tradition in Bill's family.
