Yuan- yuan ( His Chinese name meaning lucky)

He is wonderful...ornery, spunky, funny and sad.


We met our guide in the lobby at 1:55 - I probably looked fantastic as I cried all they way down the elevator ...thinking of his foster mother. We filled out paperwork...waited...moved to a conference room...waited...Tom realized the camera batteries were dead - he ran ...I waited... He came back we waited....Then finally, an older gentleman and a little girl about 6 came in followed by an older couple and a little boy with hair!! No cleft lip..a scratched up face, but a nicely repaired lip ( YEAH). He was bundled up in a wool sweater, a shirt, a coat, snow pants, pant, socks so he looked like the Michelin man. ( It is the custom in CHina to over dress their children) Keep in mind we had been out earlier in shirt sleeves as the temperature here has been in the mid 50's. His foster mother kept him dressed during the entire meeting....While we talked he stared at us, took a car and toy from me while I asked questions and took notes. Slid cautiously from his foster mother's lap and played on the floor. Tom finally crawled under the table with him and the little girl who was the foster group leader ( older gentleman) granddaughter. By the end of our meeting he let me hold him for a few minutes, then we were rushed across the street to get our picture taken for the adoption decree. It was not pretty. He did not want to sit on my lap he wanted his Grandma ( his name for the foster mother) and he had had enough of being polite to the funny looking people. He cried, I cried...Finally the foster mother came in and held him - she asked is he wanted his mama and baba ( Chinese for daddy) to hold him and he shook his head no. I laughed - who could blame him ? SHe stepped outside - our guide said the foster family needed to leave. Tom held the baby - I went out to offer our small gift and to thank another mother for raising a child I was taking from her. She reached to shake my hand and I hugged her. What an amazing woman...I don't know how foster parents do it - Wow...We cried and then she and her husband left. We went in and almost as if he understood the finality - he quieted down and we took his picture. We came to the hotel and headed up to the room...


The boys I think were waiting by the door, TIan was watching "Finding Nemo" ..I brought him in ( he loves TV...gee Tom was disappointed :o)) and with the movie running in the back ground the kids took each other in. Ty just kept saying - "This is amazing!" Tian, of course, wanted to hold him ( keep in mind he had an older sister so that was not going to happen), Tj and Trevor were more bashful...by the end of the evening he was stabbing people with chopsticks, had jumped on top of Tian ( who was not happy), had thrown food, eaten an apple, soup, crackers and hot pot spicy chicken ( more on that later). Ty has decided he is the cutest boy he has ever seen, Tian thinks he is keeper and TJ and Trevor have even decided that perhaps he should give us all lesson on how to use chopsticks ( YEs, he is an expert) HE has been bathed, bottled, and after some before bed weepiness took in a little more Nemo and passed out cold. Tom thinks he may even have "the touch" he managed to get him to take a bottle...I think turning on the movie was cheating...


His foster parents were wonderful. They are both in their 60's. Our son is their 9th foster child. 8 of been placed internationally, 1 domestically. Ours is the first to go to the United States. They are excited for him to start a new life full of endless possibilities. I asked if there were other children in the home - they had a foster daughter the same age as Tian! I think that is a good thing...he is prepared to defend himself ( and he has already and he is an expert tattle tale :o) Then, they asked an interesting question...they wanted to know if we are Christian - I said "yes" which was answered with big smiles - they are as well. What are the chances - here in the middle of China? They really seemed to love this little boy and he seems very well taken care of. She shared information for over an hour - from his favorite snacks to his schedule to how he behaves when he is angry. The best news for us is that they were willing to stay in contact with us - in fact they asked us if we would send a picture of him when he is older. I got their address - they took our mailer and camera. I sent them home with a picture of our family and his room at home. I am so happy he will have this link to his past. We plan to bring both Tian and ( no we haven't decided on his name....we all think he looks like different names) back to China as young teens to see where they came from so I am hoping they will have maintained contact - who know our CHinese may even improve enough we could communicate....


Onto the hot pot story ...I decided we needed something real for dinner so Tom, TJ, Trevor, Ty, and Tian went off to search for food. I stayed home and let a VERY tired little boy who watched Nemo and slept while I held him for about an hour. The rest of the group went in a new direction - trying to avoid the scary restaurant from the night before. Tom was incredibly brave and adventurous!!! He order by the guessing method - our Chinese is pretty limited - so he could order chicken and pork, just not how - the terms we knew did not apply to this restaurant...He was brave, and he returned home with 3 big bowls of VERY spicy food. We sat it on the table -with 2 very anxious toddlers - I reached in a pulled out a chicken foot. We were all good sports...it was rather ...scary...the food was good, just very spicy. Tian ate, the baby expertly ate rice with his chop sticks. Then,as I was getting babies ready for bed and laying out clothes for tomorrow, TJ was finishing up the food...and pulled out a chicken head - complete with beak!!! I don't think we will be fighting over the leftovers!

Does this remind anyone else of a scene from Wizard of Oz......?

The 3 of us before he firgured out who we were...I had to include this one because my eyes were open in a picture ( look Mom a miracle)

TJ eating the foot....he didn't relaly eat it - we couldn't figure out how...

TJ and the chicken head - he really wanted eat it, but couldn't go any further than holding it in his mouth...I think I will tape this on the fridge to help me lose a few pounds