Sorry email came a little late!!! We have been in a smaller area of China, Shijiazhuang, and our plug adapter did not work for powering the laptop.
We awoke to Aiden's first valentine. We got him a cards, chocolate candy, and a bedtime book (Where ever you are my love will find you). We had to re-explain over and over what valentines mean and he finally got it and decided to draw our photographer and adoption guide valentines cards and gave them some of M &Ms for a gift.
Once we got dressed we headed down for our first family breakfast........WOW that was work. Trying to figure out what he would eat and getting him to settle down and eat!!! LOL.......lets just say mom did not schedule enough time to get back to the room to fix my hair so it was a no makeup/ponytail day! I told our photographer PLEASE PHOTOSHOP THIS DAY!!! hopefully he will comply! Ha!
Our whole day was basically spent at the local government offices completing the adoption paperwork. Lot of the Chinese people are very impressed that Aiden is Bilingual. I had my first mommy bad parenting event at the Civil affair office when the orphanage director walked up to aiden and asked him if he was cold in Chinese. Aiden told him no, but then the showed me that aiden did not have on long johns under his clothes. I was like WHOOPS!!! The photographer got a kick out of it as he said no matter what the temp is the chinese believe in dressing like winter starting on the first day of winter all the way to the last day. He said all children skin must be covered in winter...(during our orientation we were told that we all would be told this by chinese people about dressing our kids, its just a friendly suggestion...lets just say he has on long johns today...although they are little short...lol...oh well)...
As our adoption paperwork day came to the end the orphanage directors invited us to lunch. Apparently this does not happen very often. Aiden was a favorite at the orphanage and was treated very well by these men. These men really were the only father figure he had growing up. It was so good to go and enjoy a nice long lunch with them, It really but a different perspective of how much they really loved Aiden and want the best for him. They told us they are so happy he is bonding with us and how they have never seen a child so attached. They say it seems like he has always been your boy. They stated that they were a little sad that he doesn't seem to miss them. I told them i promised that he would never forget them and i would put their picture in his room. We also asked for email addresses so we could send pics and stories to them more frequently then the agency will, and they were so happy and said can do you it in Chinese???.(gotta figure that one out!!! HAHA) While we were at dinner our photographer took videos and pictures which will be priceless for aiden. after lunch we all left the room and Aiden and the directors talked in Chinese on the film with the orphanage directors about his life and giving him advice about the future and how much they love him and hope he would come back to visit.......They also was very serious about asking us to please help him get his back fixed and that they wanted to see new pictures when it was done. They also talked about how they were afraid he would forget his chinese and he seemed more western than a chinese child. It broke my heart as i know they are very proud of their culture and want Aiden to not forget. It was a very emotional part of the day.
After all of this fun stuff, we headed to the local chinese market to look around before heading to McDonalds for dinner. At McDonalds, Aiden out of the blue said, " Micheal is sad. " That was really the only time i have seen any emotion of sadness or grief. He has not cried yet though. Grief and loss is a common emotion and a lot of the time the children do not know how to process how they are feeling so we are working on discussing it little at a time.
Last night Aiden and Ray went swimming in the indoor pool at the hotel but it the water was so cold so it only lasted about 10 minutes.
Going back to the comment of the orphanage director about his language, Ray and I had a long talk with Aiden yesterday before lunch. I told Aiden that he is chinese and when in China and speaking with Chinese people it is polite and important to always speak chinese.. When he is speaking to english people, he could speak english. We met a lifeguard at the pool that spoke both english and chinese and she was loving Aiden. I told him , See how smart she is knowing 2 languages like you and really after playing with her, he has followed what we asked him. I was struggling prior to coming here how i was going to handle this issue but his english is so good there is really no reason he can not do both. If he was struggling with english i would have probably let it go. We do plan to have Chinese Sundays in America. We will go to all Mandarin speaking church, then to Bo Lings for lunch (they have an authentic chinese dinner on sundays) then to Chinese language/culture class in the afternoons to help him maintain his language. Ray and I have also decided we are going to look for a mandarin speaking babysitter in KC. The colleges in town have big chinese groups and will work on that when we get back.
Feb 15th: Breakfast went so smooth!!! We had to sit down and explain to Aiden when we are at the table its time to eat not be silly or WIPE OUR HANDS ON OUR CLOTHES...
We left Shijiazhuang and headed back to beijing. It was a long car ride but a quiet one because Aiden watched Stuart little and Kung Fu Panda on ray's laptop!
I have noticed today Aiden seems alot more whinny and clingy. He is giving hugs and kisses on check and lips very very often. He consistently wants to sit in my lap or have me carry him. One funny Aiden quote was when i was looking at his hand and asking him whats wrong with it he said, " I thought you were a doctor so you should know".....LOL (he has dry skin and we have been putting Eucrin lotion on it and its getting better...by the way...
We are getting ready to head out to the acrobatic show tonight and then to bed. We have a big day tomorrow. We will visit his school BCIS, do some shopping, and have dinner with his closet circle of friends (woo family, Dorrs).
Enjoy some pics from the past 2 days!
ok Gotta fed this boy and get ready for our show!!! Thank you all for your comments and emails, time is so limited i can not respond to everyone but we love hearing from you and appreciate your prayers and support!!!
Leigh
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