{"id":2365,"date":"2013-07-23T08:15:37","date_gmt":"2013-07-23T15:15:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/?p=2365"},"modified":"2013-07-23T08:22:58","modified_gmt":"2013-07-23T15:22:58","slug":"the-post-in-which-i-tell-you","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/?p=2365","title":{"rendered":"The post in which I tell you…"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC_8035\"<\/a> \"DSC_8056\"<\/a> \"DSC_8061\"<\/a> \"DSC_8096\"<\/a> \"DSC_8097\"<\/a> \"DSC_8118\"<\/a> \"DSC_8123\"<\/a> \"DSC_8128\"<\/a> \"DSC_8132\"<\/a> \"DSC_8134\"<\/a> \"DSC_8135\"<\/a> \"DSC_8148\"<\/a> \"DSC_8149\"<\/a> \"DSC_8150\"<\/a> \"DSC_8153\"<\/a> \"DSC_8155\"<\/a> \"IMG_1086\"<\/a> \"IMG_1097\"<\/a> \"IMG_1102\"<\/a> \"IMG_2704\"<\/a> \"IMG_2707\"<\/a> \"IMG_2712\"<\/a> \"IMG_2718\"<\/a> it’s all going eerily well!<\/p>\n

We all slept at least eight hours and had a two hour nap this afternoon. \u00a0Isaiah was pleasant and smiled and even laughed at times. \u00a0He took his bottle (hated it last night, I think it needed tweaking; more milk powder and less warm) this morning and ate really well at his meals. \u00a0He’s even had two baths and done all the right things in the diaper department. \u00a0Whew! \u00a0Somehow I waste more hours on these sorts of things before we meet our kids and yet they seem to know how to do what they are going to do and off we go!<\/p>\n

I put out the infamous stacking cups this afternoon and he worked really hard at pulling them out of their nesting spots and then putting them back in. \u00a0He either pinches and locks his fingers to grasp them or he puts his hand inside one and splays his fingers to gain a grip on them. \u00a0Either way, he’s innovative.<\/p>\n

He works so hard on whatever task he is at that he has an ever present drip of drool hanging from his bottom lip. Not the yucky gooey kind, but the kind that just sits there because he is so focused that he doesn’t even notice. \u00a0I will say, that he’s not a fan of having his face wiped (not many kids are!). \u00a0\ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

Oh, and we know he is leaning towards a vegetable-arian, like Samuel. \u00a0It’s not hard to tell. \u00a0Stick in a piece of meat and next thing you know he makes a really disturbing face and out it pops.<\/p>\n

Samuel is doing much better than we expected, but still in the normal range for a five year old who’s didi position has been usurped. \u00a0He shows him tenderness, but there is lots of grumpiness and sass mixed with attention getting. \u00a0The tender times are there though and so there’s hope. \u00a0\ud83d\ude42 \u00a0Isaiah is a very tall boy and so when the two boys are sitting together, while Samuel is a bit taller in a seated position, at first glance it’s like seeing twins. \u00a0A bit awe inspiring for this Mom who never dreamed she’d be the matriarch (whoa – can’t believe I just wrote that<\/em> word down!) of this many children!<\/p>\n

Oh, and Samuel is fascinated by Isaiah’s long hair! \u00a0He’s always loved long hair and he strokes his hair all the time. \u00a0Until, at least, Isaiah, lets him know, thanks but no thanks, pal.<\/p>\n

The little photo album that we sent to the orphanage is still a hit. \u00a0He enjoys turning those pages. \u00a0Stephen added a simple game with it. \u00a0It’s a little rythymic retelling of the names in the book. \u00a0He chats it without help now and looks for approval.<\/p>\n

As for today’s agenda, we headed to the civil affairs office to complete Isaiah’s adoption! \u00a0After we had our photo taken with him and had our thumbs\/his hand printed with the red ink, the registrar said, “Congratulations! You are his parents now!”. \u00a0My heart stopped for just a moment with the reality that – Wow! We made it! \u00a0He’s really, finally our son! It was really quite nice as I don’t think that we were afforded that moment during the other kids’ registrations. \u00a0It can be a bit of a blur of paperwork on the finalization day!<\/p>\n

On the way to lunch, we stopped at a store called Metro to pick up a couple pieces of luggage for Isaiah’s belongings. \u00a0He came to us with quite a bit and we’ll be shopping some in the next week. \u00a0It was interesting. \u00a0A lot like Costco (membership card, multi-pack format products) and yet the stores colours were Ikea blue and yellow. \u00a0They even had a backyard swimming pool for sale (1,300 or 13,000 Yuan – couldn’t be 13,000 could it?) and our guide shook her head. \u00a0Even if a person had the money for it, where would they put it? \u00a0And she’s right. \u00a0Everywhere you look there are skyscrapers and apartments. \u00a0It was her neighbourhood that we shopped in. \u00a0Afterwards, we took a short cut through through a fruit wholesalers market. \u00a0Apparently watermelon (pink and yellow fleshed) is in season. \u00a0Traffic was gridlocked on that street and people kept hopping in and out of cars and off and on the backs of trucks to buy them. \u00a0It seemed to be great fun, by the smiling faces!<\/p>\n

For lunch, we went to the Guinness Book of World Records award winning Largest Restaurant in the World! \u00a0They have a 17 acre piece of land that is essentially a compound with many many buildings. \u00a0We ate in the Hunanese one and they had a stage with dancers performing minority dances from the 7 minority people groups in Hunan. \u00a0Delicious food and a nice show. \u00a0We enjoyed really enjoyed it, especially the funny Chinese grandmother dance performed by strapping young men. \u00a0LOL \u00a0On a more serious note, we have been focusing our attentions on our sons and connecting with the family at home. \u00a0The giant screens at the pre-show, showed the rescue efforts in Gansu after the terrible earthquake there. We are praying for everyone impacted. \u00a0It’s especially horrifying after driving through rural villages, to see the devastation to the rural farming area in Gansu.<\/p>\n

Overall, it was a really good day! \u00a0Tomorrow we have been offered the chance to drive southwest to Loudi. \u00a0This is Isaiah’s hometown. \u00a0We will visit his orphanage and finding location. \u00a0We feel honoured that they will allow us this chance as we have been told that it is fairly uncommon.<\/p>\n

Off to join the others in bed!<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

it’s all going eerily well! We all slept at least eight hours and had a two hour nap this afternoon. \u00a0Isaiah was pleasant and smiled and even laughed at times. \u00a0He took his bottle (hated it last night, I think it needed tweaking; more milk powder and less warm) this morning and ate really well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,48,20,34,29,13,14,23,1],"tags":[63,62,8,72,68,66,59,61],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2365"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2401,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2365\/revisions\/2401"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2365"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2365"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningtogetherathome.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2365"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}