We went to the adoption registration office at 10:30am and Lillian (2 years) was already waiting for her parents Allison and Roland. After about 5 minutes, Ethan and Lauren (5 years) arrived from Lianyungang SWI. Ethan was very quiet and cried occasionally if we paid too much attention to him. We asked questions and received a gift of a bracelet for Ethan plus they gave us a wonderful growth and development book. In it there are reports and pictures of a woman working with Ethan. I asked if this was his nanny, they said she was a 'grandma', which I believe may be someone who is sponsered by Half the Sky to come in and work with 2-3 babies at a time. We support the HTS nanny program and the reports we receive copies of are just like Ethan's. I know that HTS has programs in Lianyungang orphanage, we feel very fortunate that he benefited from their presence there.
We brought Ethan back to the hotel and held him for a while until he started to fall asleep. We put him down for a nap and when he awoke he took a bottle from us but he had to hold it in a certain position to drink it. I was trying to hold the bottle up but that was wrong and he couldn't drink. I little while later when I tried to feed him mashed banana and rice cereal he didn't take to it well. I got some into his mouth but he kept rubbing his nose and then some of the food came up into his nose and seemed to bother him. His feeding schedule stated that he ate these foods but maybe I have the wrong consistency, not sure. We are going to try congee (rice soup) this morning and see if he can eat that. I will be happy when his palate is fixed as it seems uncomfortable for him to eat anything but milk or diluted juice. He also drools a lot (like Quin did). We need to buy cloth bibs today,
Ethan's weight is great, he is heavier than any of my kids were at 1 yr, about 20 lbs. He sits up well and is very interested in toys. He is very observant and hearing seems great. I thought he couldn't crawl because he cried when I laid him on his belly. But last night we had Lauren, her mom Regina and Alex over for pizza (Papa John's delivery) and Ethan started scooting around on the floor following the kids. He does a belly crawl.
Ethan slept all night and awoke around 5am. After 6 days in China, this was the first night that Nyla and Liam slept until past 5am also, Liam has been up at 3am for almost a week. Maybe they needed to see their brother to sleep well. I am glad that everyone rested well. This morning we go to the adoption registration office at 9am to finalize the adoption. It will be official after today!
Yesterday I didn't feel well after we received Ethan. I don't know if it was nerves, but I think I might have a little stomach ailment. I really wanted to go home and realized we still have 10 days left in China. Today I am feeling better and I am again so happy that we have this room until we fly to Guangzhou on Saturday. We spend 5 nights there in order to get a US Visa for Ethan, it is a great city and the White Swan hotel is also beautiful. We will happy to be home though and hope these days pass quickly. Patrick had a bad experience with our hotel in Beijing, ask him about it when he gets home!!!
Thanks for following, hope to see everyone soon!
