First Weeks Home

Hi Everyone,

Jonathan has been adjusting wonderfully.  He is having fun discovering many new things.  He has been playing with this brother and sisters.  He gets a little worried about sleep time, calling for mama, but then he sleeps through the night!  Staff probably came and went all the time at the orphanage so he gets worried.

Around meal times he says Yummy! Yummy! Yummy! and he does a little dance and swings his arms.

The weather is getting warmer so the kids are spending more time playing outside.  He loves the trampoline and playing at the park in our neighborhood!

I think the first weeks home can be told better in pictures, so I hope you enjoy these.  We had to gather photos for our 6 week post adoption report and Angela said to post them right away to the blog.

Jason

Checking in from Jason – photo’s below

Checking in from Jason – photo’s below

Well, we are over the major hump of the adoption process and easing into life in Guangzhou in southern China, waiting for our US Embassy Visa appointment on Tuesday.  But it was quite the journey to get here!

His personality is really coming out.  He is really bonding surprisingly well, especially with “mama” which he quickly calls if she not around, and then he smiles or laughs.  The orphanage must have really prepared him for what a family means because he seems to just accept that this is what he was waiting for and now it’s here.  Joshua has also been amazing and has really played and been affectionate with Jonathan – what a great big brother.

We have been Skyping most days and Annabelle and Aleigha (both 7) can’t wait to meet him.  They think he is “sooo cute.”

Last week, after all the adoption proceedings, we had a day of rest on Thursday while we waited for paperwork to be delivered from Jack, our guide.  We were able to do some shopping and enjoy some of the lantern festival activities in Nanjing around our hotel.

On Friday after getting Jonathan’s Chinese passport, the group of three Madison families in Nanjing enjoyed some sightseeing around Nanjing on the way to the airport.  We saw one of the largest City walls in the world.  Even though it was a bit chilly and windy, we all enjoyed the tour.

Jonathan’s first flight was a breeze.  He played and chatted during the 2 hour flight which is like flying from Detroit to Orlando. 

After a small snafu with our room at the White Swan (our first room was tiny with one small rock hard bed because they were oversold) resulted in a free upgrade to a 2 room, 2 bath suite for the same price!  But because of this situation we got to sleep at 2:00 AM.

Guangzhou is tropical and a big contrast to Nanjing this time of year.  It is in the 70’s, humid, and we are on a small colonial style island in the middle of the city.  It’s very trendy with magazine model and wedding photo’s being taken on nearly every corner.  It has many nice small shop owners and we had all our laundry done by a local shop for about $25 USD.  A very comfortable and relaxing place.

On Saturday, we had Jonathan’s medical with the 8 other Madison families (as well as about 30 other families) who are here, many traveling from other provinces from last week.  He did well, but did not appreciate the TB test injection, but Angela had a sucker waiting and that helped ease the tears.

Sunday, while everyone in the US was sleeping, we visited a Safari Park (zoo) with the other Madison families.  A nice big bus took us all to the park.  Jonathan loved the animals and really enjoyed the bucket of toy animals he picked out.  He played and played back at the hotel room tonight.

The photo’s tell the story of the last 4 days so please enjoy. 

Jonathan's trip back to the orphanage – from Jason’s perspective

Jonathan's trip back to the orphanage – from Jason’s perspective (photo's at the end):

Words that might try to describe this trip to the Xuzhou orphanage are:  emotional, sadness, necessary, joyful, pitiful, bonding, motherhood, scary, grateful, saved, abandoned, hope, love and family.

A good but tough day for Jonathan. 

When we arrived, the local TV station and several newspapers were there with a few reporters.  They are very interested in showing how well the orphanages are run, but are also intensely curious about why we are adopting a child from China and curious about a larger family. 

In my opinion, China is grappling with a large orphan population, coupled with a stigma against Chinese people adopting, but also a stigma against foreigners adopting.  Where do you go from here?  Well that’s where hope comes in and Madison Adoption Associates:  thank you!

Jonathan’s caretakers wanted to hold him at first and he cried and absolutely held on to Angela.  The young reporter asked me if he was crying because he missed his friends.  I replied no, he is afraid we are giving him back and leaving him.  The reporter was a young guy and had done this story more than once.  By the end of the visit, he dropped the persona and visited with us.  I even joked with him that he should adopt a little girl that he thought was very cute.

This visit was a good thing, in that Jonathan really understood we were taking him home from “this place,” and by the end of the visit he was ALL smiles and was waving and saying “good bye” to everyone.  We could really tell how sad they were to see him go.

And by “this place” I do not mean anything bad.  The staff of this orphanage is absolutely amazing.  The conditions were the best possible and they truly love all these children.  They are so well taken care of, but the kids are missing a family and all that comes with that.

Jackson, a seven year old who is being adopted by a family traveling with us (photo of Joshua and him playing DS together on the train even though they speak different languages), got to see his friends and was SO giving in that he gave away a yo yo he had just been given the day before rather than keep it for himself – he had told his friends he would bring back a gift - very powerful statement of selflessness.

We saw Jonathan’s many cribs.  The Director is one of the most amazing and joyful and hopeful and caring people I have ever met.  One of the last photos is Jonathan, Angela and Ms. Tang.

As a footnote, there are at times 200 orphans in this one facility, with nearly 200 more placed in local foster homes.