He Is Officially Ours!

Where do I start? Jon Jon was good at the CCAA here in Changsha yesterday. Like one of you said he looked like a deer caught in the headlights. He took the little truck from me and got down on the floor and started playing with it. It was very sweet. He would roll it over to me and I would roll it back to him. I tried to give him some time to play before I overwhelmed him and picked him up. I think it helped. When I did get to hold him he was fine with it. This is also a child that loves people and will want to be help by everyone at the ZZ orphanage.

I was disappointed that his foster mom did not come. They told me that her husband was sick and therefore she could not come. I also found out as others have told me is that he was placed back at the ZZ orphanage 5 days before Gotcha Day. So, he has already had one transition to go through before he came to us. : (

The ride in the van was fine until he realized that he was being taken away. That is when he started fussing,talking and trying to get out of my lap. He is extremely strong and as he stared crying and sobbing he would throw himself backwards! There were a couple of times i thought I would drop him! SCARY!!!

We got back to the hotel room and this went on for around 45 minutes. Finally we got him to take a bottle and I rocker him to sleep. He napped for about 2.5 hours which meant it was 7:30 pm. I decided that I needed to wake him up so he would sleep through the night. He woke up okay and then he munched on some Cheerios's, congee and banana puff's. He loves Cheerios's and doesn't like the puff's. Congee he is not a huge fan of. It is so interesting to see how each child is different. You can never be fully prepared for your individual child before you come over here. I brought Soy based Similac and he is on a milk based formula. I am trying to mix it in as he progress him.

When we got the report from the caregiver on Monday she reported that he was just taking a bottle and also some gruel which is like rice cereal mixed into the formula. Well from other reports I had he was eating alot more solid foods. Interesting conflict of information. All I can tell you is go with your gut and see where your child is at. He loves food and will try anything once if he likes it yippee if not he spits it out. Make sure you bring lots of bibs. especially the kind that is vinyl and with the pocket in front. Those have been our lifesavers. The care giver also reported that he got up between 10-12 and had a bottle. So far he has slept through the night.

Getting him to bed is a chore and struggle. It took us around 30 minutes to get him down. We held him, we placed him in the bed between us,tried to give him a bottle and nothing really worked. Finally patting him on his bottom for 30 + minutes while he was on his tummy put him out. Then we transferred him back to the crib.

Today, he woke up pretty easy. We gave him his first bath and when would not sit down and immediately pee ed in the water!! so we had a standing up bath! Breakfast we had him sit in my lap and I fed him. He ate alot, loves melon banana's,breads polenta, fried rice etc. The buffet here is incredible with both a Chinese and Western style food.

We went back to the CCAA in Changsha today and had our ceremony where the ask you questions about why you want to adopt, would you ever abandon him and do we still want him after 24 hours. We had a picture taken with the director of Zhou Zhou Orphanage.

Then it was off to Wal Mart. That was an experience ! It is a huge building with about 3 floolrs. The food are is like a market in Europe with all of the different meats, breads, fish and exotic foods. I also looked for some clothes for Jon Jon . He is still in an 18-24 month size which is big. Alas though nothing in his size. So, meanwhile we just roll everything up and roll over the waist bands.

Then we came back to the room and just played,napped and got to see how incredibly smart this little one is!! You show him how to do something once and he has it or he problem solves it on his own before you can show him. Thank you Lord!!

I will post more tomorrow. We have a very busy schedule and it is hard to find time to post with a little one. : )