day one with O

Good morning. I am very happy to say that it is 4:30 am instead of one. Our heads hit the pillow at 7:45 and we were out. When we got lil O's schedule and routine the first thing we saw was a 9 o'clock bed time. We new it would need to be the first thing to change and we are happy to say he adjusted nicely. Who knows how long he layer and stared at the ceiling cause mom and dad were out!

I am typing from the bathroom floor right now trying not to wake the boys (love saying that). I am excited to keep this journal to someday show lil O, so pardon me for being too detailed. And I am using an iPad that I am not very familiar with. Please bare with me.

Yesterday was one of the weirdest and best days ever. The anticipation leading up to meeting your already four year old son is very surreal. I remember heading to the hospital in labor with both our girls and looking at Tyler and saying, "well, here we go. We are having a baby today." It is the BEST feeling but you know there is a lot of work (and pain) that keeps you pretty distracted that day. This was just strictly waiting. I can't describe it. I don't think it is a natural feeling cause I know this is not the way God intended families to be brought together. But so thankful how he prepares our heart and guides us in dealing with a broken world.

We started our day with a very early breakfast. We get a free buffet that has a great variety of American and Chinese cuisine. It is tasty. We then went back to the room to get ready and met our guide Michael and three other families to go over paper work. We received lil O's finding ad. This is the news paper article saying he was abandoned and that his birth family had three months to "claim" him before he would be logged into the system as an orphan. We are very grateful to have this piece of his past because we don't have much. This also listed the date and place he was found. We were hoping to visit this place but we were told it is over two hours away near the first orphanage he was at.

After the paper work we went to the baby store to get him some snacks and a sippy cup to take with us and went out to lunch with another couple, Casey and Trace. We are so thankful they are here. They are from Alabama and Trace is a pastor in college ministry. We got to hear a bit about their story. They have two boys the same ages as our girls and are adopting a little boy who was in lil O's same play group. I loved what they said when we asked them what lead them to adoption. They said they had always wanted to and then didn't really need to pray about because the bible kinda spells it out for us. "We are just suppose to do this." The other two couples are very nice too. One family brought their two older daughters, ages 8 and 10 maybe. That was so fun to watch meet their little sister. Made me very excited to have our three munchkins together.

After lunch we quickly gathered our things and met the group in the lobby. We boarded the bus and drove about 30 minutes to the civil affairs building. We were told the kids from Love Manor (O's orphanage) wouldn't be there for an hour. Sigh! Since that was three of the four kids we got to all sit and watch one family meet their daughter and take pics for them. It was so cute and she was a little spit fire. Our nerves were settled as we realized these are just kids excited to hang with some new people and get some new toys. We have read that a lot of grief comes later when they figure this is real and forever. Praying to skip this phase ( ;

So after, what felt like a lot of waiting, we heard little feet and voices from down the hall. A group of kids and nannies walked in and there he was... the tallest kid in the group. So cute and wearing the same bomber jacket we have seen in many pictures. The nannies were talking to him and I think indroducing him to his mama and baba. He leaned in for an armless hug (We are used to these from D) for each of us and then frantically wanted the plastic bag which contained his belongings. I thought "how cute" cause all that was in there were the crocs and photo album we had sent him but later realized there were cookies in there ( : He was very shy but snugly at first, giving us little crooked smiles. We gave him a treat that we bought and that got him ver excited. He wants to open and do everything himself. No help! He was super stoked about the match box cars and he and daddy started playing right away. So fun to watch this boy bond happen in minutes.

We then got to ask his nannies questions about his personality and life at the orphanage. Some things they said: smart but does not speak a lot of long sentences and struggles with some speech due to his cleft palate (which is closed now), loves outdoors, loves things with motors, likes playing with other kids, very sweet and polite but can be stubborn, shy at first but then warms up to new people, very good eater and sleeper. We met some of his teachers as well. They seemed to all love him very much and were very happy for him to have a family.

He seemed very excited and happy the whole time and just waved good bye to his nannies like it was no big thing. Once we got in the bus he was less expressive and very quiet. It had to be a lot of stimulation for him. They don't ever leave the orphanage. We played back in the room for the rest of the night. He dug into his suitcase like it was Christmas. He really enjoyed coloring. He is very good at drawing but unfortunately I have no idea what it says or means. Daddy gave him a bath where we discovered he is super ticklish. So funny! We had read that kids in orphanages may be very possessive of their things and especially food. This appears to be very true of him. He held onto his plastic bag so tight and did not want to give those cars up that we gave him. He had food hidden in his pocket which he thought was so funny. He gobbled down some Mcdonalds (we heard kids like fries) and kept one hand on it till it was gone. Makes me sad but also excited to show him that he does not need to live like that any more and all his needs will be provided for from here on out. The sweetest part was even though he would cling to his food, he continually shared with us. He would bring each of us a seed or fry with a huge smile on his face. It was so cute!

It was a great first night. He laughed a lot. He likes it when mama and baba are silly. He even started talking a bunch and said Henna and Lu's name. He has slept all night and probably kicked me in the face 50 times but I loved every one. Excited for what today holds. We will go back to the civil affairs building and fill out paper work that will officially make him our son!

Oh! And did I mention he is much bigger then we anticipated? We will try on the clothes I brought today and see how they work but he definitely weighs more than D. Luckily there is Gap and H&M across the street ( ; I admire you if you read this far! Love you all.