Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Day 2 in Wuhan - 9 days left

Day 2 was good…really good. One meltdown because Rob told him “No” when he was being defiant, but the truth is he is testing his Daddy and that’s actually a good thing. If he’s comfortable enough with Rob to push the boundaries…great! Things are going in the right direction.

The registration and notarization appointment went well and Josiah is officially ours…Praise Jesus.  Sometimes I never thought this day would come. Such relief in seeing that red little foot print : )  I thought that it might be difficult for Josiah because the orphanage director was there as well as his nanny. Rob sent me a picture of him with his nanny and it’s a sad picture.  Not sad because Josiah looks sad, but sad because he looks indifferent and that is so sad for me. I know he obviously bonded with her or he wouldn’t be grieving, but he doesn’t look like anything in this picture. Nothing in his eyes. All of his other pictures have so much expression. There’s usually so much in his eyes. Nothing in this picture. It’s just plain sad. When Izzy and Mari left Hidden Treasures I had pictures given to me of that day and they looked happy. You could tell they loved their foster family so much. This wasn’t the case in this picture. Now, I wasn’t there so I can’t say exactly how he acted around her, but this picture haunts me. Then tonight Skyping with them I asked Rob if he gives kisses or if he lets Rob kiss him and he said to me “he doesn’t know what that is”.  So Rob showed me by trying to kiss him and it’s quite clear that Jos has no idea what he’s doing. So, I kept having Mari and Izzy kiss me on Skype while Josiah was looking. Over and over they kissed me. It was sweet. They were teaching their brother already : ) He turned his head and put his mouth on Rob’s neck. Poor baby has no idea. He hasn’t been kissed or kissed anyone. It broke my heart. How could this beautiful little almost three year old boy not been kissed. I told Rob he’d better get to showing him because his Momma is going to kiss him all the time. All the time !!! I have three years of lovin on this boy to make up for.  I can tell that he likes my voice. When he hears me he smiles. Rob taught him his name and he says “siah” instead of Josiah. So sweet. “Mama” by far is my favorite thing to hear him say : ) The girls loved seeing him. Izzy couldn’t get over how cute he was. Mari seemed a little more skeptical about him which is not her style at all. I’m wondering if she’s starting to understand that she’s not the baby anymore. Lordy things are going to get complicated around here.  I’m realizing the more I see him and how he is beginning to interact more with Rob that there’s been no one on one for him at the orphanage...not that I thought there had been. It's just evident that there really hasn't been much individual attention given. Rob said in just two days he’s learned so much. He hardly talked at first and he’s already learning new words in English. He’s learning sign language as well. It’s so sweet to see them communicating although they don’t speak each others language. Just goes to show you love is a language of it’s own.  

When he went to bed last night there was no crying. He was playing with his stacking cups and he just put them down and walked over to the bed where Rob was and held out his arms. He climbed up in bed with his Daddy and laid down with his head propped up on Rob’s knee put his fingers in his mouth and literally fell asleep looking into his Daddy’s eyes. He only woke up one time during the night. The night before was every thirty minutes. I know he’s confused. I’m sure he has no idea what is going on, but I can already tell that he knows he is loved. 

Rob was given a beautiful book. They called it a “finding” book.  It has all the information about where Josiah was found. What condition he was in. It has pictures of his time at the Xiangfan Orphanage. His milestones there. It holds some of the missing pieces that every family that adopts from China has.  Some of the pieces. You never have everything.  There’s always that time from birth till they were abandoned and found that you’ll never ever know. He was also given the clothes that Josiah was found in at two months old.  I’m really grateful that they took the time to put this together for us. It means a lot especially when there is almost a three year gap in your child’s story. When you do a life book for your child that came into your family through adoption from China there’s a painful gap. It sticks out like a sore thumb and inevitably they ask as they get older. This helps some with that and I’m very grateful they did this for him. It means so much to me. 

So far so good. It’s going way better than I expected.  To God be the Glory.







3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, Lis

SO touching! This two weeks alone with his daddy will be special to both of them forever. (GOD knew that.) What a beautiful family. I haven't told Sarah yet because the first thing she would say is "I want a brother too!" Maybe one day - you're inspiring me.

Eliz

Brad Arnold said...

You can't screw it up dude. Well done.

Anonymous said...

Hi Lisa, congratulations with your new son! Are you already a member of the Xiangfan Families Yahoogroup? It has lots of pictures and info on Xiangfan orphanage. Regards, Evelien van Soeren