Rainy Pandas

Last night was a tough night... Not for Audrey, Sam, or Jay, but for me! I think it was just exhaustion and emotional stress. Everything in China is so hard. Being somewhere where you can't speak the language, can't read the signs, don't understand the culture  - and being there with 3 kids, one who you can't communicate with, is draining. Jay is doing way better than I ever expected - he showed attachment to his caregivers, he is so sweet with Audrey and Sam, he runs to me if he gets hurt, he's happy, he does not seem to be malnourished and doesn't eat insanely everything like my others did at the beginning. But he is frustrated with me not understanding him and he is covered (and I mean head to toe covered) in bug bites. They don't seem to bother him - I just can't imagine where he lived that he'd be used to that many bites. I've scabies treated him from head to toe twice, and keep applying lotion to help him feel better. Even if he's not complaining, they have got to be itchy! There is one other family staying at the same hotel who are adopting a little girl. They were saying how she has scrapes and cuts all over her and they were told there was a lot of fighting at her orphanage. It's heart breaking to think what these little souls have lived through. But even with whatever living situation Jay had, I can tell he was really loved.  Even though I've done this twice before, I forget how emotional this is. After some much needed facebook messages from a friend back home and texts with a friend who is in China adopting right now (but unfortunately in a different area), and then Jay going straight to bed at 8pm and sleeping until 6am, I feel much better today. Adoption is such an amazing experience, but it is hard. I keep reminding myself that this is the "labor" of my pregnancy and I just have to get through this and things will get easier.

Today, we had a free day in Chengdu as we wait for the official adoption documents from the court. We spent the day at the Panda Research Center. Sam loved telling our guide everything he knew about pandas (he did his end of the year 1st grade project on pandas). It was a rainy day but actually was nice to be there when it was cool and not humid and mosquito-y! Jay was very excited to see pandas but after awhile he said he was - All done! Let's go home!

We just got back to our hotel and got changed out of our wet clothes and are having some down time before our big night tonight. Jay is watching cartoons and Audrey and Sam are writing in their journals. Tonight, some nurses I met when they were visiting Cincinnati Children's Hospital are taking us out to an authentic Chinese meal and to a performance. It will be so great to see them - and to have a bunch of pediatric nurses to help with Jay for an evening! :)

One last important update. Audrey has come up with the best nickname ever. Jay's Chinese name (which will be his middle name) is Haijun.  This is the name he is used to so it's what we've been calling him. Then Audrey started calling him June Bug. Ha! He cracks up and says - June Bug! June Bug!

My wifi has been blocking me from posting images, so I've been sending them to a friend to upload later from the US. So, if you see a post without pictures, just check back and they'll be added later.