Well, it’s been several days, and all I have to say is the honeymoon continues. It’s really funny – all of the kids have come to me and said something along the lines of “I can’t believe we’ve only had Noah with us for two days! I can’t remember what it was like before!” And really, I’m not quite there in that I do remember, but I have to say, he is fitting in better and happier than I ever thought he could be.

I could tell he didn’t sleep much that first night (and I could tell because I didn’t sleep much
either!) but he woke up happy and we had a lazy first morning getting breakfast and packing up because we knew it would be a very long afternoon. Our adoption had already been pushed back a day and then we were supposed to go this morning, but we got word that another worker needed in the process had to push us back to the afternoon.

Adoption day was crazy. And kind of a nightmare. But we got it all done, and that’s what counts. We left right on time, and drove about an hour to get signatures notarized, then drove an hour back to register the adoption where we found another worker had gone into a meeting with her supervisor and was unavailable. We waited about 2 hours for her and finally registered the adoption, but that put us into rush hour, and that meant we weren’t able to drive the hour needed to get to the passport office and file before they closed. John told us we would have to stay another night in Jinan and do it in the morning, but I was getting really concerned – it takes 11 days to get a passport, and if we can’t get it, everything, our US consulate appointment, Noah’s visa, everything would be pushed back and that meant changing our returns, which costs tons of money and affects the kids’ school, Nathan’s work, everything. John said they would try to do it on time, but still. We started praying right there in the van and John’s phone rang – one of the men at the passport office talked 3 colleagues into staying an extra hour and a half just to process Noah’s passport because he likes John. Seriously! So kind!

So we rushed across town (as much as you can rush in rush hour) and had to run up the steps to the passport building. Nathan caught up with Noah after the first eight or nine steps and carried him, but I was still alarmed to see that with that, his whole face went pale and blue and he started weaving – I was sure he was going to pass out. He wasn’t even phased – I think this happens to him all the time and he’s very used to the feeling – but it sure scared me. We are learning lots of things about him these couple of days and some of the most obvious ones are that he’s not going to let much stop him, and also that he doesn’t have much choice because he really is very sick.

After registering the passport, we still had to drive another hour to the train station (this city is enormous, and crazy populated and we just seem to keep crossing the whole thing). We thought we were going to have a wait for the train, but John got us on an earlier one to try to get us in in time to sleep so we ended up running with all our bags through the station trying to make the train. And of course, now we know Noah cannot run. Absolutely cannot. He can do a fast walk for about 2 minutes and then he is just done. So we’re trying to get everyone there, down multiple flights of steps with all our luggage, Nathan’s running back and forth grabbing bags, trying to keep the kids with us all while I’m trying to get Noah to the train and we finally leap on, have everyone and all our stuff and heave a huge sigh of relief – can’t even believe we made it! So stressful. And then the train is delayed. For about 30 minutes. And we could have walked and gotten a snack and used the potties. But anyway, we’re on the train. We got in so late and checked in and John left and we got up to the room and realized there’s this kind of horrible chemical smell, but we know no one can talk to us and it’s so late and so in the end we decide to just hope we won’t die, put the kids in the better room and go to sleep. It was that kind of day.

This morning we went to see Noah’s orphanage. Noah lived there until his first surgery and was at the hospital and at the orphanage off and on until he was 3 and has been living with his foster family ever since. He goes back to the orphanage often for health checks and paperwork and things, and it was incredibly touching to see how much they cared about him and how comfortable he was with everyone there.

We thought they were just going to give us a tour, but when we got there, they had organized a going away party for him! They had a cake and a huge sign for him and many of the workers came including his baby nanny and the foster care coordinator and the director of the orphanage. There were also a few of the other children there, and I actually recognized one of the older boys from our agency’s wait list – it made me so sad because he looked so very hopeless and resigned, and I know that it’s very rare for an older boy to be adopted, especially with health needs. I’ve been praying for him and the other waiting kids from our agency, and will be thrilled if I see him matched. They thanked us again and again and told us how happy they were for Noah, and what a wonderful chance it was for him to have a stable family.

They also gave us essentially gold – someone there had taken an incredible amount of time putting together not one but 3 photo albums of Noah’s whole life with captions and everything. It was amazing! I cried – I had been hoping for a few pictures, maybe one from each year as I had heard some people got and trying not to have my hopes too high, and this was more than I’d ever hoped for! And it showed such love. I know that his life was not easy, but he was loved here.

Frankly, it was the nicest orphanage I’ve ever seen and the people there seemed to genuinely to care for and love the kids. And for that, I am so thankful, and so grateful to them for what they’ve done for my son and for the other kids in their care. But even then, it is still an orphanage. They had shown us the room Noah lived in until he was two, and it was a small, clean, bright room with 20 cribs. There were babies lying there and when they cried someone came (which doesn’t happen at all in many orphanages) but it might take a while and the babies were going to spend most of their time alone in their crib. It’s just the way it is. Babies do not belong in orphanages. Children do not belong there. I know in my heart that every one of the workers in that orphanage would agree with me – they couldn’t have responded to our coming the way they did if they didn’t.

After that we left and went to see Noah’s “finding spot” – the place where they found him as a baby. His police report was very specific, so I was able to stand there, and to take pictures if he wants them someday. Standing there was surreal – I was thinking how cold it would have been that time of year, and how desperate you must be to walk away from your baby. I can’t say more about that – it’s too hard.

We spent the rest of the afternoon looking around the city, but Noah was getting a little sad. He recognized many of the places as places he’d been with his foster parents. So we went back to the hotel and got dinner and just decided to watch a movie and cuddle together.

Two funny things. One, we went out to dinner and as soon as we had walked a couple of blocks we realized it was too cold and windy to go very far and Noah was really dragging after the long day so we just picked a restaurant at random that was close. We spent at least 20 minutes with the kindest, most patient waiter who was attempting to use translation software on his phone that wasn’t working at all trying to figure out our order. We finally thought we had it, but he still had some question that I clearly wasn’t getting, and wasn’t getting, when Noah made some comment under his breath. The waiter looked at him in disbelief when he realized he spoke Mandarin after all this trouble and they had this exchange which we didn’t understand at all, but given the body language we’re pretty sure it went like this,

Waiter: Are you kidding me?! You speak Chinese?!
Noah: Yep!
Waiter: This whole time I’ve been struggling to talk to them. Is this your family?
Noah: Yep!
Waiter: Then what is going on?! Why aren’t you helping me?!
Noah: I can’t talk to them either!
Waiter: (sighed and muttered in English) Whatever.

We all died laughing, and the waiter even smiled.

Second, we now know Noah loves to sing. This is very good in our family, but he’s started singing all kinds of random English phrases which is absolutely hilarious. So he’ll be walking around singing, “Hhhheeeeelllllpppp meeeeee! Yellow and blue!!!! Oh yea, wow, wow, wow!!!! Go to schooooooool!!!!!” I find it very endearing how much he’s trying to learn English, and the singing is just cracking me up! This morning he woke up singing in Chinese, but at least it was a phrase we knew – he was singing “Chi fan, chi fan, chi fan” which means, “I’m hungry, I’m hungry, I’m hungry” over and over and since we could relate, we took him to breakfast. 🙂

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