What more could a mother want than the gift of a child on Mother's Day! That is exactly what I got!!! A SON! A happy, healthy (except for some heart problems and a runny nose), CHUBBY little boy! We received Jonathan David Yuan Tao into our family today, May 9, at 3PM (China time). The Orphanage Director, Nanny (from the orphanage) and our guide brought him up to our room and Kathleen ran to greet him in the hall. It was such a beautiful moment!
About 20 minutes before Jonathan arrived Kathleen cried and said, "When can I finally meet my brother? I want my little brother now!" She really was excited to finally meet him and hug him. She has been so sweet to him and gentle with him. Jonathan, on the other hand, is ALL BOY! It's become apparent rather quickly that we have a princess for a daughter and a potential rugby player for a son! He is thick - thick fingers, thick neck, thick legs, and very thick feet which I struggle to squeeze into the shoes I brought for him. Once we video taped the Gotcha moment and documented it with our camera, we brought him in the room and he let us know right away that he has a good arm on him and can launch things very easily across the room. Kathleen did not require us to child-proof anything in the house. Jonathan WILL! (I smile as I type that.) He's just 100% boy and 100% inquisitive. I love it!
We took the kids to dinner and Jonathan proceeded to eat three bowls of rice and vegetables and beef. He got mad when we stopped him after three bowls. We came back to the hotel and I gave the kids a bath. Kathleen was so excited she wanted to jump in the bubbles right away. I told her about her first bath experience with us and how much she HATED the water. She was very considerate and said, "I'll give Jonathan a chance to be happy in the tub first. I can show him how much fun bubble baths are, Mommy." And she did! And he showed her how adept he was at splashing water all over the place. Kimmer looked at me and said, "I guess I'll be putting linoleum in the bathroom when we get home." "You betcha!" I told him. (We bought the house with carpet in the bathroom and had planned to change it once we had kids...we HAVE KIDS NOW!) Jonathan loved his first bath and did not want to get out. He was definitely tired as we struggled through reading a story (Kathleen's favorite thing to do at night) and then Kimmer took him and rocked him to sleep while I read more books with Kathleen and gave her a special gift of her own. Before the baths, we weighed the children and Jonathan is 29 pounds - just two pounds lighter than Kathleen (and two years younger!).
Jonathan's transition thus far has been so smooth, but it has only been three and a half hours that we've had him (awake, that is). But he was a joker from the start and I don't think that will necessarily go away. He smiled within seconds of coming to us and smiled and laughed throughout the evening. He has gone to both Kimmer and I willingly and asked for both of us (in Chinese). I remembered several words and phrases I used with Kathleen to help her transition from Chinese to English and got several more from our guide. I've been using the Chinese/English/sign language combination since dinner time to help him transition into his new language. Kathleen has (thankfully) picked up more Chinese words and is speaking a bit of Chinese to tell him things.
We didn't get out to check out Nanchang like I wanted today or yesterday. Our flight arrived after dinner time yesterday due to a weather delayed flight. We will get out to see his home town the next five days and we are looking forward to it. Today, we opted to give Kathleen some down time. We were going, going, going in Beijing and we knew today would be a very emotional day for her. She has handled it so well and has not complained or griped about anything with Jonathan. We have talked to her about how he doesn't understand how we speak (our language), just like she doesn't understand the people that keep coming up to her and talking to her in Chinese. She understood that and said, "Jonathan speaks Chinese like the other people here. We'll have to teach him how to talk." He talks just fine and says quite a few Chinese words and I'm sure he will pick up English quickly, as well.
According to a Chinese saying, we have the perfect family...one girl and one boy = perfection! Right now, as they are both sleeping quietly it IS perfection! God is good and has brought us an amazing little boy.
