Saturday, March 29, 2008

3.29.08

First, we want to say thank you for all of your prayers! We know that there are many people praying for us and we are so blessed by that.

The little boy we have today is completely different from the one we had yesterday. He is full of life and affection, exploring and playing, no longer patient about waiting for his bottle, and never wanting to be more than a few seconds from Daddy's secure arms.

I knew it was a new day when I came out of the shower this morning and heard him laughing and diving into his Daddy's chest. He is still a little wary of me but he absolutely loves Phil. He has gotten a litle braver about walking around, but about every three or four seconds he throws his arms up and runs towards Phil. Even if he is already being held by his daddy, there are times when he is looking at something else and then turns back and throws his arms around Daddy's neck.

He came to us a few days ago so shut down and fiercely guarding his heart, but I think having this big, wonderful man come into your life who has so much love and security to offer is too much to resist.


He is an absolute monkey climbing all over the place and scattering toys everywhere and now we have the happy problem of worrying how he's going to behave on our long flights home.

He has been eating everything we feed him with enthusiasm, but his diapers bear witness to the fact that his tummy is in a little bit of turmoil. The hard thing about living out of a hotel room is that you can't get away from the smell of a bad diaper, even after it has been tripled bagged.

In the orphanage he was fed congee, so we have been giving him some of that since he is used to it. Congee is basically watery mush, or to be more exact, lean pork porridge with preserved duck egg. I know your mouth is watering now.


It's Official


I forgot to mention it yesterday, but the adoption became official yesterday morning in a very brief ceremony with the registration official.

Also yesterday, Grace and Caleb got to meet their new brother over skype. The difference in our children yesterday was striking. Joshua sat stone-faced staring at the computer without moving while we watched Grace dance all over the screen and Caleb literally climbing the furniture in the background. We miss them tons and know that Joshua will love growing up with them.



Now I Know How Madonna Feels

We took a walk today along the beautiful West Lake and again provided entertainment for all the locals. People would come up to Phil and shake his hand or try to start a conversation with us in Chinese. The man in the picture below spoke English and had a lot of questions for us. I don't know if he was more astounded by the fact that we had a Chinese baby or by the fact that we had three children.


As he talked to us, more people felt comfortable stopping and staring at us and we drew quite a crowd.

One young woman came up and asked me if she could have her picture taken with me. Phil says that if we start to run out of money, we can charge 10 yuan to have pictures taken with us.

When we were going through our homestudy, we had to take several classes about being a conspicuous family, answering questions, dealing with being in the spotlight, etc. I think being in China is good practice for that. I doubt we will ever get this much attention or curiosity in the US.

"Will they remember that they are Chinese?" the man asked us. We assured him that they would.

We also visited a silk museum today, where we learned all about how they get silk from the silkworm cocoon. It was very fascinating and I would love to tell you all about it but it is getting late and I am very tired, so if you're just dying to know about it you can Google it.

We were invited to Tai Chi tomorrow by the old man in the park and to church by Rebecca and we are looking foward to both. Here is one more picture of the peach trees in blossom at West Lake.


2 comments:

stephanie said...

what fun to read of your adventures. and that poor kid! i can't believe he has been eating that everyday. maybe he won't be a picky eater and he'll even like mom and dad's seafood lasagna.

can't wait to meet him. we love you guys and are praying for you.

Teri said...

Wow, what an amazing journey so far. He sounds absolutly wonderful. congrats to you guys.