Daniel

My three bugs are all snug in a rug so I have a few minutes to write an update.

Today was a wonderful, amazing, exhausting and surreal day. We woke up early, excited of course, but also because of the time difference. The three hours waiting to go down to meet Maggie, our guide, in the lobby went by at a snails pace. Breakfast was fine, not too much we recognized on the buffet. At 8:40 we met Maggie but the driver was late so I had time to run to Starbucks around the corner while John, Cosette and Maggie waited at the hotel.

As we drove to the Civil Affairs building my stomach began to feel like butterflies were in there. I finally allowed myself to get excited! We went inside, up an elevator, around a corner and into a conference room where Daniel waited for us with Mrs. Pan from his orphanage. He was pensive at first, but quickly warmed up. I pulled out matching Mini and Mickey Mouse stuffed animals for him and Cosette. At first he was shy about taking it, but Mrs. Pan rattled something to him and he took it and gave me a full tooth grin. That was the first sign of his beautiful personality coming out. He is a delight; all smiles, laughter, teasing and playing. We pulled out the picture book of our house, with pictures of each room. As John pointed to each bedroom he said “mama and baba” (mom and dad’s room) then jie jieh (big sister) and di di (little brother) for our respective rooms. He was very excited and went back to his room several times. We then looked at the pictures of the family; first of Cosette with John and I, then individual shots of each of us and of course the cat Molly. Finally I pulled out the pictures of Daniel that I’ve been carrying in my purse for the past 10 months and placed them each in the album telling him Daniel is now with his forever family pointing to each of us saying "mama, baba, jie jieh and finally him, di di. Maggie translated for us, then told us that Heng, Daniels Chinese name means “forever". An amazing moment!

Daniel was a little confused about the hotel. He expected to go to our home, the ones in the pictures. Maggie told him we would be staying in hotels for a few weeks. He asked how many days and Maggie told him. He repeated “17!, no too many” emphatically in Mandarin then told Maggie to take him to his new mama’s house now. He continued to ask this, almost demand it a couple more times throughout the day. Take me to new mama’s house NOW, pulling out the pictures and pointing to the picture of the outside of our home. If we could we would little man, believe me!

I know this is likely to be a honeymoon phase but the balance of the day has been a joy. Daniel is making great eye contact, he holds our hands anytime we go out, stoked my hair a few times, asks to sit in our laps, etc. All signs of healthy bonding.

We spent a good part of the rest of the day in our hotel room. First Daniel and I played a game on the computer. Then he said it again “take me to new mama’s house” but it sounded different this time and when I asked Maggie said that he said “there are no toys here!” Little does he know what that suitcase has in it!

We have a rule about beds and hotels. Cosette has always been allowed to jump on the beds at hotels. Well, we have this gigantic king sized bed and she has been having a ball jumping and tumbling on it. Daniel took a while to warm up to the idea but he finally jumped up there with her and started jumping. This is when the giggles started. The four of us laughed and laughed. The kids jumped, tickled each other and generally played as if they had known each other for years. What a joy!

Then I pulled out the beach balls. When Daniel realized what I had he squealed with delight, hardly able to wait for me to blow it up. Then when I blew up the second I thought he would wet his pants with excitement. What fun! We played with those balls for a good hour, most of it laughing out loud together.

The only quiet moments today were when Cosette and Daniel colored together. As usual, when Cosette finished her page, she tore it out and brought it to me. I praised her great work and put the page on the desk beside me. Sure enough a few minutes later Daniel was there beside me presenting his diligent work. Of course I praised his work and proudly displayed it beside Cosette's. At some point during the day John taught Daniel how to high five so we now have the obligatory 'hi fives' every time Daniel (or Cosette now) does something praiseworthy.

When we left for dinner tonight Daniel ran and grabbed my hand and rattled something with my name in it. This has been the only frustrating thing, not understanding him, or him us. He rattles on a mile a minute, much like his sister, but we just don’t know what he’s saying. The electronic translator doesn’t help much.

After dinner tonight we came back to the hotel and settled in to bed. Daniel fought sleep like it was his worst enemy. Sleep time is such a vulnerable time, I can’t imagine how it must feel to let go of the little control you have left. He just didn’t want to settle down. Eventually he lost the battle and drifted off into never never land.

Tomorrow is the formal adoption and a bunch of silly, but important paperwork. Wednesday we travel to Dalian to see Daniels home city, orphanage and we pray meet his foster family. The latter is unlikely, but we have made it clear this is our desire and we have not been told “no” yet.

Blessings from Shenyang,

Tonya