Trip to China
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Monday, June 18, 2007 First of all, I want to express my gratitude for the beautiful and heartfelt comments that have been left in Jude's guestbook. It is such a joy to read your notes and know that so many have helped welcome our sweet boy into his new family. These comments are an encouragement to me now, and will be a special keepsake for him. So THANK YOU! Last night went extremely well. I was concerned that Jude would have trouble sleeping, which would be completely understandable, considering the circumstances. He and I played on the floor for a long while while big sis, Tori, crashed about 8:00, shortly after consuming a pasta dish and her favorite, tiramisu, compliments of room service :) Finally, at about 9:30 I decided he had to be tired as he had not napped since our first meeting at 4:00, and I knew his schedule called for an early bedtime. I tried to hold him and he would have none of it, so I simply placed him in the crib and he promptly stretched out. It took him a few minutes to fall asleep, and I was sure to stay close enough so he could see that I was still there. By about 10:00, he was crashed, with the corner of his pillow in his mouth for comfort. He stirred a few times during the night but didn't wake up until 7:00. He was slow to wake up, and I am sure the new people and new environment did little to encourage him to want to jump out of bed. He didn't want me to hold him, but it didn't take long to get a smile out of him. Then I scooped him up before he could resist and distracted him with a milk box which he downed right away. Bath time was next since we has skipped it the night before. Although he was obviously very well cared for, he does have some skin spots that need attention and some patches where his hair is missing. And where his hair isn't missing, it's sparse! Nothing a little TLC and some good eatin' won't fix :) He seemed comfortable in the tub and continued to play with his ball and stacking cups, not seeming to care that I was bathing him. I think he's going to love bath time with his sisters when he gets home... and I know they are going to LOVE having him in the tub!! We were set to meet at 8:50 for our meeting with the notary, so we headed to breakfast by 8:00 to be sure we had enough time for him to eat. He started with some soft bread, which he tried to suck on instead of bite. His caretakers wrote that his main diet is rice cereal in a bottle, so we will have to work on getting those teeth used to doing some work! We tried the congee, but he didn't like it too much. What he loved was the scrambled eggs and drinkable yogurt. He downed about one egg and two containers of yogurt. I think he would have eaten more if we had had more time, I'll definitely have to factor in his appetite tomorrow morning! The appointment with the notary and orphanage officials went well, considering that his nanny was there. As I expected, he cried as soon as he saw her. He could pick her out of any crowd, it was like watching a baby search for his mother. I decided it was best to continue to hold him, despite his protests and when I left the room to get a change of scenery, he was able to settle down. The paperwork went smoothly and after a question/answer session, some signatures and some red ink, the adoption was complete. The rest of the afternoon was 'free time', which was welcomed after such a flurry of activity the last few days. Jude is throughly enjoying all the toys I brought and, as predicted, his favorites are the stacking cups. Even the things that aren't necessarily toys are fun for him. He enjoyed playing with my travel alarm clock and he even held it up to his ear and talked into it, like a phone. He seems to enjoy playing with me and Tori, but is also content to play alone. While he is not always seeking me out, he does try to engage me by 'giving' me his toy, and them promptly taking it back ;)

Not too sure about bath time A favorite toy, Gerber Puff top Red footprint for adoption paperwork WalMart makes good cookies too! Gettin' some love from mama Pre bedtime silliness!

We went out to dinner with our guide and the other family in our group. Of course, it was Chinese. And I was actually looking forward to NOT having room service. The restaurant we went to was very highly recommended and Tori and I were both starving by the time we got there. Our guide ordered for us: rice, noodles, chicken, spicy pork and vegetables. Definitely something in there for the 'non- adventurous' crowd, right? The chicken was still red inside, the vegetables had abalone (?) added, the pork wasn't pig, but pig intestines, the noodles had cuttlefish and the rice was, well, dinner for Tori and I. We were both happily eating the noodles when Tori pulled out an unidentified object and our fellow travel mate declared it squid. Then the pork dish arrived and our guide got out her portable translator and handed it to me, with the sort of 'pork' included in the spicy pork dish. Chitterlings. Better known to those of us in the south as chitlins. Yeahhhhh. If you know me, you KNOW I was turning green at this point. I think the guide was very confused why I was eating so little, but obviously very well fed ;) After we came back to the room Jude came alive. Giggling and playing, even Tori can't resist his adorable nature. We can't wait to see how he has blossomed by the time we are leaving Guangzhou and headed home. But for now we are definitely enjoying the ride.

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