Bu Yao!

We've had to pick up some words in Cantonese quickly when we got Jack yesterday. Since he's potty trained, we wanted to know how to ask him if he needs to go to the bathroom. So we learned words for "pee, poo, diaper, bed, and he taught us dog when we gave him a stuffed dog.

Jack slept through the night soundly. After so much crying, he was completely worn out. When he woke up this morning, he looked at us a little confused, and went to the bathroom and used the potty. Then he came back out and gathered his water bottle and sippy cup and went back and sat at his spot in the window and started crying again and calling for his foster mom.
 He cried for maybe an hour and Brent somehow convinced him to go for a walk in the halls with him. While they were gone, I went down to breakfast. When I sat down to eat, they joined me. Jacks tears were gone and he was hungry. I gave him some of my food and within a few minutes Brent had him giggling and soon he was trying to make us laugh at his antics. And that was it. He loves Brent and follows him everywhere. I thought maybe when we met our guide again he'd go back to her but when he saw her, he hid behind his daddy and wrapped his arms around dad's leg. Such progress!

There was another word we needed to know, how to say no. Bu Yao.

 We went to the civil affairs office to sign his adoption paperwork. He was in a great mood. Bu Yao, don't jump off the back of the benches. Bu Yao, don't climb up on the stroller so that it flips over. Bu Yao, don't hit momma. Bu Yao, don't hit daddy. Bu Yao, don't grab that paper and wad it up, it's kind of important. He got a huge bruise next to his eye from one of his jumps. The orphanage director kept laughing and let us know we had our hands full. The civil affairs office was full of adoptive parents holding their sweet baby daughters through the non special needs program that had been waiting for 5 years and more to complete their adoptions. Then there was Jack, tearing through the room with a huge grin on his face and an infectious laugh and us chasing after him just trying to catch him from whatever he jumped off of.

Jack adding his official seal to his adoption

He was like that for THE REST OF THE DAY. Brent and I were exhausted. He could not sit still for more than 2 minutes. We had to ride in a car a few times to get to the different gov't offices to get his adoption paperwork done. We couldn't get him to sit down in the car and he actually got very mad and screamed and cried if we mad him sit. We put the seat belt on him and he shrieked and screamed. A bit worried about all the time we're about to spend in airplanes sitting and with seatbelts on very soon...

chatting with sisters

After the civil affairs office we thought we'd take him swimming at the hotel pool to use up his energy. The water frightened him but he loved running around the pool. His parents were a nervous wreck because  I didn't want to try to find a hospital and try to explain how my son got a concussion. We didn't stay in the pool very long. We went back to our room and he had a great time in the shower spraying everything in the room with the shower sprayer.


  By 5pm Brent and just sat on the bed and watched him tear around the room trying to make us laugh, jumping on us, hitting us, trying to get us to wrestle. Bu Yao! You can't brush your teeth in the toilet! We are so not used to boys. I kept thinking, "this is the first day of the rest of my life like this." LOL.



 At 7pm we couldn't take it anymore and I pulled the curtains and turned out the lights and said it was bedtime. The hotel had provided a crib for Jack to sleep in. But the bottom is made of wicker and it just wasn't going to last from the abuse our 3 year old energy bomb of a boy was capable of inflicting on it. I made a bed on the floor for him since that's where he slept last night. He pouted and stomped around and cried for a bit because he didn't want to sleep. Then he crawled up in the bed between us and fell asleep. Brent did too, and I had to crawl out of bed to make a blog post so everyone wouldn't think we still had the same sad desolate little boy from yesterday. Thank you for your prayers, now if we can just find the regulator switch on him, we might make it through this trip with enough energy to make it back home!

Lucy, you have met your match- you just don't know it yet!