Wednesday morning, 3/7/07 - Our little man is SO cute!

Oh my gosh did we have an interesting day yesterday afternoon. We went back to the Carrefour (like a Walmart) to get some things for Matthew (and ourselves). We got looks galore like you wouldn't believe. Number one it could be the stroller. It's a double stroller (which you don't see very often here in China), number two, we have a SON! He looks healthy enough on the outside, which I'm sure people are wondering about but yesterday, at lunchtime, Matthew and I were playing a game while he was eating. He never opens up his mouth very wide so we were pretending to yawn so I could get food into him. Well, I got to see his palate (or lack there of). Straight through to the nasal cavity. Poor little guy. No wonder he is constantly cleaning his palate way. (sounds like he's snorting or breathing really heavy, but it's not, he's just cleaning the airway/palate way of food or if he drank too quickly.)

The Carrefour was a quickie! It's ok to be the center of attention sometimes, but man, people come up to you and just start rambling in Chinese and I'm standing there with the kids going huh? Marina, our guide just casually walks over and begins to talk to the people and then tells them about Matthew's special need (sn). We bought some clothes for Matthew. I do NOT know metrics very well, so I just held up clothing to him and tried new shoes on him to see what fit and what didn't. He was so happy to get shoes that fit him. Daddy put the first shoe on him and he just smiled like crazy and was so happy he started singing!!! (I just thought to myself, wow, singing over new shoes that actually fit your feet. His little red shoes that he came in were so very worn, toes to the very end and slippery to walk in because of the sole's being almost gone. They are the papery kind of shoes that NO person let alone a child walk in, or play in. But, that's all the orphanage had, that's what they put on him.) We then got some more bottled water, orange juice from DOLE, cartons of warm milk and checked out.


This morning, we all slept in BIGTIME! I got up when I heard Rebecca running to and from the bathroom. (nothing wrong mind you, just running to and from) So I got up, then little Matthew got up and now Daddy is up. This is the most we've slept since leaving the USA. I'm so grateful and told the Director so, for the care that Matthew has received. He is developmentally delayed in alot of things. Yesterday for dinner, we tried to see if he could feed himself and he could, but with MAJOR problems. He acts like more of a 1 1/2 year old in some things and 5 year old in others. We'll catch him up. Just his language skills alone are just surpassing every notion within me! I never thought that within 24 hours, he'd be speaking english. That to me is just mind blowing!

The director of Yibin Children's Welfare Institute is such a very humble and gentle man. He said from the moment we met, that Roy and I were the best parents possible for Matthew. He was glad that we were keeping some of his Chinese name in the English spelling of his name. The Notary policeman pretty much said the same thing. That made us feel very good.


Today we have a free day. We plan to go eat breakfast, get showers, wash some clothes and then walk around Chengdu some more. I tell ya, being by yourself in a province is MUCH better than having 20 some families all trying to figure out where you want to go or something like that. Chengdu is pretty friendly. Our guide Marina has said that anywhere near the Prime Hotel is safe to go. (But there are unsafe areas around here also, but she said we wouldn't have to worry about that.) I like the Prime Hotel. It's in the middle of EVERYTHING! You have a McDonald's across the street (take the skywalk over the traffic filled streets), KFC about 3 blocks away, and Pizza Hut WITHIN the hotel!!!! Had pizza last night and it was AWESOME!

Well, I better end here. Lots to do and the kids are hungry! (kids....hmmm, I have two!) ;o)

Until next time..........