"I don't know who these people are, but at least they've got food!!!": June 30th

We began the morning with breakfast buffet. Seth-Siyuan was quite pleased with the unlimited food. We heard his first words as he pointed to what he wanted to eat and said, "Je-ge" which means "this". Over and over he would point, "Je-ge," "Je-ge". He ate eggs, sausage, noodles, fried rice, watermellon and mango juice. I finally had to just stop feeding him, because he had eaten so much and didn't show any signs of stopping. He might give Gregory a run for his money in the food department. It makes me so sad to think of children who go hungry, children who never get enough to eat. He looks plenty healthy with good fat on his body, but still he must not get as much food as he wants. The last few bites he didn't swallow and kept in his cheek for several hours.


We spent most of today at the Civil Affair Office. This morning we were interviewed about Siyuan and our motivations for adopting. We had to swear to not abandon him, to educate him and to love him like our biological children. We signed lots of paperwork and then the adoption was finalized. This afternoon we returned (and sat waiting for 3 hours) while the paperwork was typed up and finished, and we signed a few more papers.

For this morning's paperwork the orphanage director had to be there and so his nanny was there too. He went right to her, and I was happy he could be with her for a little bit longer. She held him and loved him and kept telling him that we were his new parents, and he had to listen to us and be a good little boy. When it came time for them to catch the train back to Baoji we let her hold him and say goodbye. She cried. So did I. Then I took him from her and we waved goodbye. He cried and cried, "Ma-ma, ma-ma!". Talk about break your heart. We just took him away from the only family and home he's ever known. In the end it's for the best, but she just lost one of her children, and he lost his mama. What a tender and bittersweet moment for all of us.


We came home inbetween our morning paperwork and afternoon paperwork and let Seth play with Legos and then take a nap. He let me hold and snuggle and sing to him and feed him a bottle. How brave of him to let me love him when his heart had just been ripped out.

Tonight we went to a famous jaudz restaurant. I guess mostly famous to the Chinese because there was no English on the menu, but we had fun ordering, Thank goodness for Derek's Chinese. The jaudz were to die for and I wish all of my kids could have been here, since Jaudz are our thing. Seth was quite happy to get more food. He snacked all afternoon while we waited at the government offices, but that didn't slow him down tonight. He didn't really care for the tofu noodles, but then neither did the rest of us, but he liked everything else.

Alex enjoyed eating the leftover garlic from our stir-fried cucumber dish. He ate four cloves at once. We hope not to get too close to him tomorrow.

This picture is taken outside the jaudz restaurant. In the background is the 1000 year old bell tower. These old bells are still rung twice a day at 8a.m. and 6p.m.




After dinner we went for a walk in one of the local markets. Talk about ambience! Our favorite find was a vendor selling an assortment of crickets all in cages. This cage was a double decker cage with two crickets. Remember Mulan and the lucky cricket? We didn't know they still kept pet crickets?! (sorry about the underline, can't seem to get it off of here)


We are all falling so in love with Siyuan. We asked his nanny about his personality. She said he is easy going and open minded. He does seem pretty easy going. He still prefers his Daddy, but if his Daddy isn't in site he'll tolerate me, and he's not fought me at all on rocking him to sleep. He is so sweet. He's starting to talk a bit, and it's adorable to hear his Chinese. I tickled him and he laughed and laughed. We don't get a lot of smiles, but many times you see a hint, but he's holding back. One of my sad moments was while waiting for the paperwork to be done I was walking with him outside. An elderly couple came up and were asking me questions like, "Are you adopting him?" "Where are you from?" I was doing my best in my limited Chinese. Then they asked me if he was born with part of his arm missing. I told them he was. Then the two of them began talking amongst themselves about his arm. I looked down and he had pulled his arm totally inside his shirt, hiding it from view. We immediately left, but it tugged at my heart to see him already so self-conscious about his arm. It's been fun for us to see how well he uses it. He's quite adept at using it for many functions that you would a hand. We all love his little arm, but mostly our love for him has grown so much in 24 hours. We feel almost overwhelmed with it, and are delighting in getting to know him. We can't wait to watch as his personality unfolds. Truly, The Journey is the Reward.