We’ve waited over 7 months for this day!
We were up bright & early. Who could sleep on such an important day?
After some breakfast & getting our money/paperwork ready, we met our guide in the lobby at 10 and headed to an office building about 15 minutes away. We started off doing all the paperwork that will be necessary to complete the adoption tomorrow, then paid the necessary “donation”.
Soon he came walking in. I almost wasn’t ready with the camera and I was so excited & waiting to see him I completely forgot about needing to take pictures!
But luckily I caught his first glance at us. Taking it all in – knowing that things were different, but not knowing what or why. He put on such a brave face – walking right into the room & going first to Dan, then to me – with no tears!
We were there quite awhile with no one really paying much attention to us after the first 15 minutes or so. The guide & orphanage staff were chatting, the nanny was standing beside us, but not really interacting. We just played with Xiao Rong & tried to put him at ease by offering to open the package of gummies he came with (some that we had sent in his care package).
The orphanage brought many gifts for us & Xiao Rong: a very nice souvenir cup with the orphanage logo on it, a beautiful photo book with priceless photos of him & his surroundings, a DVD of the orphanage, some postcards, his chop, a full, unopened package of Huggies diapers & formula, 2 extra sets of clothes and a heavy coat.
Eventually we made our way back to the hotel. Xiao Rong was not happy about the car ride…and ended up getting car sick :( Once in the room though he began to play a bit…still very serious & not knowing what was going on. We introduced a few toys, which he liked to hold, but enjoyed playing with the remote & dragging all the stuff out of the bathroom more :)
Little by little we stripped off the many layers of clothes he was wearing – careful to watch for signs of fear that he wasn’t ready to have them removed. He was wearing 3 shirts, 2 pants & 2 pairs of socks – even though it was in the mid 60’s!
I weighed him (quickly so he didn’t get scared) and saw he weighed close to 32 lbs (according to their scale & the super fast, wiggling weigh). If this is true he’s only 10 lbs. lighter than Kalia :) 24 months/2T clothes fit him good – a smidge big but not bad (shirts good, pants big around middle & long).
He seems to be a very busy boy. Not sure if that is nerves or his real personality.
I asked Dan to find some fried rice for him to eat for lunch. While waiting for him to return he managed to drag everything out of the bathroom, line it up on the bed, then put it in the cabinet.
After his nap (which he laid down for without too much trouble) we decided to go for a walk. In hindsight, might not have been the best idea. He was scared to death of all the people & noise. Clung to me & whimpered. It’s a big, crazy world out there for a boy who’s never left the orphanage! I felt horrible, so we grabbed some dinner to take back to the hotel. Unfortunately I decided to give him a hamburger & fries and he wanted nothing to do with that. Honestly, for someone who’s done this before you’d think I’d have known better :( We ended up getting him some ramen from the convenience store – which he loved!
He went to bed fairly easily, but awoke about an hour later & cried for a bit. He did the silent cry…which brought me to tears. I barely heard him and when I did it just broke my heart. Not sure if he’s always this quiet, or just knows that no one will come anyway so why cry :( He went back to sleep after I held him, but then woke again around 2. Scared me to death when I found him not in his bed. Looked around for him & heard him opening the hall door. Gave me a heart attack!!!! Thank God I woke up…can’t even imagine if he’d managed to get that door open & leave! (needless to say the top lock was locked from that day on!!!!) He finished the night in bed with us. May not be a good habit to start, but it was what he needed.
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