Free Day

Let me first apologize for misspellings.  I type this into my iPad's Notes app which corrects things like it wants to and I haven't had time to proofread it before I copy and paste into the post.

Le An woke up around midnight again and we got him back to sleep by 1:00.  I personally didn't sleep well last night due to "someone's" snoring.  I finally got up around 7, made a bottle in case Le An woke up during my shower.  He didn't.  He slept a LONG time last night!

We didn't hurry this morning since we didn't have to go anywhere today.  I washed some underwear and socks since we've kind of run out.

We went down to breakfast and today Le An tried scrambled eggs.  He liked them!  He also ate another steamed bun (besides his bottle earlier).  We really have to get different colors of food in this kid!  We tried apple juice the other day but that was not a hit.

We played a bit and then got ready to go to Walmart.  I had a list this time.  Since Le An sucks his thumb I thought we'd get a pacifier and see if he would take it.  We also found some teething crackers for him to chew on.  We looked for more of the vegetarian biscuits but couldn't find them.  Also more water and some cotton squares.  We walked back to the hotel.  It was rather chilly today.

When we got back to the hotel, we were walking through the lobby and we heard someone call Xu Le An's name.  We turned around and it was the gal from the orphanage.  She wanted to see him so we got the chunei off of Tony and stood him on the floor.  He was smiling and looking at her and she at him. I got out my camera and took a picture of that interaction.  I pulled the camera down and noticed she was crying.  That broke my heart.  I went over and put my arm around her and told her we'd take very good care of him.  She doesn't speak English, though, so don't think she understood my words.  Hopefully she understood my actions, though.

Echo had told us before we met him on Gotcha Day that when he was found there were some keys left with him.  The gal pulled them out of her bag now and told one of the CCAI representatives to tell me what they were.  The orphanage staff had written a note that they were "Xu Le An's birthmother's belongings".  The only connection to his birthmom.

We said goodbye and they went on their way.  (By the way, we asked Echo the possible reason for him being abandoned since he was a boy and he had/has nothing physically wrong with him.  She said possibly she was young and unmarried because in China an unmarried mother cannot get a registration ID for her child.)

We didn't eat much for lunch.  We tried to get Le An down for a nap but he would have none of that.  I thought I'd gotten him down but then he woke up.  Tony dealt with him while I went down to the lobby to post yesterday's post.  I got back and Tony was reading and thought Le An had finally quieted down but then he was up again in his crib.  He just wouldn't go down.

It was time to go down and meet Echo.  She called the room and I said we were getting ready and would be down shortly.

Echo lives not too far from the hotel.  She took us through her neighborhood and showed us where she gets her fresh fruits and vegetables every day.  We stopped at a grocery store and found some vegetarian biscuits.  They had a 4-pack of all 4 flavors.  They only had one so they let us pay for it and held it to be picked up on our way back.

Next we stopped at an elementary school and watched a class of 3 1/2-4 yr olds.  They all said "Ni hao" to us when we walked in and I think they were tickled when we said it back.  The teacher was teaching them how to tell a story and was having them come up with reasons why the baby bird was sad. One said because he had to go to school and he missed his mom.  One said the bad guys had some and he was scared.  Then the teacher read the real story to them and it turned out the baby bird didn't need to be sad because he had friends like the bear to make him happy.  They took a break and they told the kids they could ask us any questions.  I sat down one the piano bench with Le An and several of the kids came over and touched his face and were just enamored with him.  There were also 2 other teachers for the class there and this was their first contact with adoption.  They were asking Echo all kinds of questions.  They also noticed he only had a single layer of clothes on besides his coat.  Echo had to explain that it was a cultural difference.  Echo said I could take any pictures and video I wanted to, so I did.

When it was time to leave, all the kids said goodbye in Chinese.  They were all so cute!  We walked around the playground where older kids were playing and then picked up our biscuits as we passed the grocery store.  Echo walked us through a park on the way back to the hotel.  Yesterday she said the forecast for today was sunny.  We did not see the sun at all today.  It was too cold to hang out in a park.

We got back to our room and there was a "hall party" right in front of our room.  We joined in and visited for a while.  Then a couple of the families decided to go over to the Holiday Inn Express and have Chinese for dinner.  We had decided to have Italian so that's what we did.  Tony had lasagna and I had a cheese ravioli.  We enjoyed those different flavors tonight.  Le An even got to taste both of them.  He must have liked them because he never spit them out and wanted more!

He got his first bath from us tonight.  He LOVES to splash the water!  We both got kind of wet!  When Tony first put him in the water, he was standing up and just started peeing!  So...we drained the tub and put new water in it.  He kept wanting to stand up and Tony got worn out trying to make him sit down.  We got his diaper on and decided to put lotion all over him because his skin is pretty dry.  He got a rash a couple of weeks ago and they have been putting a cream on it and said the rash looked better.  They also had given us some cream so we've been using that, too.  I can't wait to get him to the pediatrician and find out what's with his skin.  The orphanage doesn't know what the rash is but they said it was NOT chicken pox or measles.  Thank goodness!

Anyway, we got him lotioned up, got his pjs on (he's a squirmy wormy!).  It took a while to rock him to sleep but he's finally asleep now.

We take a trip to the orphanage tomorrow!

On another note, when we were at the Civil Affairs Office yesterday finalizing the adoptions, Echo said that the one 12-year-old girl had decided she didn't want to be adopted.  Things were rather tense, I guess, and there was the possibility she could have that choice.  All the CCAI families and we were hoping and praying something or someone would change her mind.  Then today while Tony was walking the hall with Le An, he saw the mom and she said the girl was coming home with them!  Praise God!  They had to go finalize today and notarize, too, so it's all much better now.  I saw her later and went up to her and said, "I heard" and gave her a hug.

Wow!  I can't imagine all the emotions going on with them and their daughter!  Wow!