Home one week!

I have no idea where the past 7 days have gone, but one thing I do know - we have a little guy who fits right into our family as if he had been there from birth.  Even the language barrier doesn't seen to get in the way too much.

After only one night of a crazy sleeping schedule Jack was back to sleeping through the night.  I know we are very blessed.  He prefers to fall asleep in our bed and then we transfer him when we go to bed.  It was hard to keep to his usual "orphanage" nap and bedtime schedule this week, but this flexible little guy just rolled with the punches.  On Thursday I had a Drs appointment.  Megan and Jack played with some toys in the room while the Dr was talking to me.  We both chuckled when Jack came over from playing, climbed onto my lap and immediately fell asleep over my shoulder!  He has even been known to fall asleep on the floor, right in the middle of his toys.

While I mentioned in a previous post that he didn't like baths, we have discovered that he LOVES the pool.  Megan had a little paddling pool at the bottom of her slide.  Before we could catch him, he was down the slide and into the pool with a belly-laugh (there was only about 5 inches of water in it).  This continued for about 2 hours.  He is now tolerating his nightly bath a little better.

Food.  I think I've mentioned before that Jack eats well, almost to the point of over-eating and hoarding.  We had to buy a little snack box that allows him to put his whole hand in but only bring one cheerio, or fruit snack out.  Well, Jack has figured out how to make a fist around a handful of snacks and then pull them out with much effort.  For breakfast, he will usually take 2 different kinds of cereal (and more if I would let him) and some grapes or melon.  I have to cut the fruit up without him seeing me, or he screams for it all.  He loves all fruit, apart from blueberries, most vegetables, ham, turkey, chicken, roast beef and salmon.  I baked salmon for Stephen and I on Friday night and made something else for the kids.  Poor Stephen didn't get any fish after he let Jack try one forkful.

I don't know if it's just because we are "new" to him, but he prefers to follow us around rather than play with toys, unless it's a bucket with some water in it.

Jack copies a lot of single words that we say, like "Hi", "Bye", "Jack", Mama", Baba", "jie jie" (for Megan), "No".  These past 2 days he has been using two syllable words, like "Hello", "bye-bye" and "thank you" appropriately.  He also seems to know when we've said something funny as he will cover his mouth with his hand and bend forward, laughing hysterically.  Of course that makes us laugh at him which makes him continue until he hiccups!

Some have asked how Megan is handling the changes to her world!  For the most part she enjoys having him around, especially when they play outside together.  She is trying to to teach him English by pronouncing all the words in the sentence slowly and loudly.  The only problem is that her sentences are very long.  When he looks at her blankly she will say it again, slowly and loudly. She wants him to learn English fast so he can move on to Spanish!  Of course, she doesn't like it when he gets in her "things" like Polly Pockets, but she is tolerating it better now that she realizes he will not eat the doll's clothes.  He usually pops them in his mouth for a second and then spits them out.  In fact he has shown little interest in them these past 2 days.

Just home from the airport last Saturday, Megan didn't waste time gettting her old blocks!



"Now I think if we add some purple reinforcing it will help...what ya think jie jie?"

He has little "quirks" that are both funny and a little sad.  He insists on putting his own shoes on and sometimes dressing himself.  When Stephen gave him a bath last night he took the washcloth off Stephen and started to scrub his feet, getting right between each toe.  He prefers to feed himself with the fork or spoon, wiping anything that strays to the edges of his mouth.  When we don't understand what he is saying, he will pull us by the hand and bring us to what he wants.

You're thinking, "this kid is perfect".  Well, not quite:-)  He can throw a first class temper tantrum when he is told "No".  He lies on the floor and thumps his feet, or will pull at your clothes with his nails, or teeth. Even with limited manpower at the orphanage I'm not sure he was told "No" very often.  The nannies loved on these children.  Remember they would only have one child of their own as the one-child policy is still very much in effect in China.  The children under their care were like the "additional" children they couldn't have.  We saw the love for Jack when we went to visit.  They all wanted to hold him.  They even fought over who was going to change his diaper when I asked where I could change him.  It is not as easy jumping in to parent a 2 1/2 year old, but our desire is to be consistent so he knows everything we do is out of love.

We have learned so many things on this journey and have so much more to learn.  We are so thankful that God brought Jack into our lives.  We don't forget that there may be a mother (and father) on the other side of the world who is still grieving the fact she left their son in the city park.  After experiencing the culture, we know some of the reasons that may have led to that act.

Jack has an appointment with his Pediatrician on Monday and from there we will get him evaluated at Children's Hospital.Cardiology Unit.