Well, I’m sitting here in a hotel in Guangzhou, and things continue to be up and down but I have to say that I really admire my new son. While most of the time things have been great, we had that difficult time in the Forbidden City, and then Noah was expressing more and more sadness about his foster family. When we got to Xi’an, he immediately asked our new translator, Sherry, if she could call his foster parents, and also talked to her a lot about home, saying things like “at home, it’s lunch time now,” or “at home, my parents would make this for dinner” etc. He was acting out some and several times seemed borderline angry or defiant.

When we got to Xi’an, Sherry took us immediately from the train station to see the City Wall, which we didn’t know was on the schedule until we got there, and we really wished she hadn’t. Everyone was tired from our all day train trip, and Noah was just exhausted. On the wall, he just decided he wasn’t listening to us anymore. He tried to run away, not really to leave us, but just to be where we couldn’t control him. I suppose the only upside of his heart condition is that he can’t go very far. We had kind of a show down on the wall, and I had to go get him and definitely be the parent. We’ve been trying just to love on him as much as possible while we’re in this transition time, so that wasn’t where I wanted to be at all, but for his safety, he can’t be running away from us.

We finally got to the hotel and got dinner, and he really seemed to rally. After a good night’s sleep, he was like a different boy. With all of our experience with sensory issues, I’m just realizing again how important it is that we keep him as physically comfortable as possible. We can’t do much about his grief except to show him as often as we can that we care, but it’s much easier to deal with grief when you’re not also hungry or cold or exhausted.

The next day we went to see the Terracotta Warriors which was the main reason we came to Xi’an. It’s absolutely amazing. Noah told Sherry that he wasn’t interested in history, but he seemed to find this pretty interesting, and it had no significant stairs which we’re learning makes him very happy.

The short story is that Emperor Qin was the first emperor to unify China and the warriors are from about 200 BC. Many rulers were buried with terracotta warriors which were meant to be their army in the afterlife, but these are significant because there are so many (8000) and the only ones to be life-sized. The army is his actual army, and every single one is different and modeled after a real person. It’s astounding. It took 700,000 slaves 40 years to build, and when the emperor died, they were all killed so no one could give away the location. Emperor Qin was apparently very cruel and four years after he died, one of his generals (who apparently knew the location) broke into the underground tomb and had his army smash and destroy all the warriors because he didn’t want the same emperor to rule in the afterlife. They were discovered in the 1970’s when a local farmer was digging a well in his field and dug up a hat. So now, as they uncover them, they are trying to piece them all back together – it’s like the most insane puzzle ever.

We had a good morning together, and even better, a free afternoon. We played Uno and watched a Chinese game show, and read books and generally chilled out. One fun thing, we have no idea where he heard it, but Noah’s starting singing “We are family!” by Sister Sledge all the time – hilarious! And he always does it pointing to us. 🙂 We had some great “Chinese hamburgers” which are nothing like American hamburgers from a street vendor Sherry suggested and then had an early night.

The next day Sherry took us to the Shaanxi History Museum and then the Wild Goose Pagoda which is the Buddhist Temple built about 1500 years ago by the first Buddhist monk to popularize Buddhism in China. We had a good time together, and Noah was having fun with us. The Buddhist temple was beautiful but hard to see – I had wanted the kids to see this because I know the first time I went to one it gave me a new perspective and also such compassion for the people there. I want everyone to know the truth of Jesus, and seeing people bowing and praying to statues who can’t hear or answer them fills my heart with such a desire to share the Truth that has changed my life. It was eye-opening for our children.

We went to lunch at a local place with Sherry which was great and then had another lazy afternoon. We went back to the same “hamburger stand” which totally tickled the lady running it. We are still very notable here, the only Caucasians we’ve seen except for a few other tourists at the Terracotta Warriors, and we could tell she felt flattered that we had come back even if we got the boring basic sandwiches because we had no idea what any of the condiments were and since this place is known for super spicy food, we didn’t want to melt our faces off.

Noah showed me a picture of his foster parents that night and told me, “Father, mother.” He was trying not to cry, and I gave him a hug hoping it would be okay with him. He didn’t participate, but he seemed glad I hugged him anyway, so we just stood there for a few minutes and he let me hold him and then he put the photo album away and asked to play Uno.

The next day we flew to Guangzhou. Noah has never been on a plane, and he was very nervous. He thought it would be like a roller coaster. We told him it was like the train and he looked like he thought we were crazy. We told him, no really, it’s like the train except your ears might hurt a little, and he looked like he was being too polite to tell us that he thought we were nuts.

When we got to the airport, he was clearly nervous waiting at the gate, and he didn’t even want to look at the plane, but he marched right on. He’s got some serious chutzpah, this kid. He seemed much more comfortable when he saw it looked like the train. After the take off, he was totally fine – realized it was a lot like the train and just relaxed. We could also tell this wasn’t a US flight because it was about two and half hours long and they fed us a chicken and rice entree, a snack bag of seaweed crackers, a pickled radish chicken salad, a bun, and a giant piece of cake, along with two other things we were never able to identify. Glad we didn’t pick up lunch before the flight!

This morning we had his medical clearance. He had to take more pictures for his medical and his visa, get a general screen to make sure he has no infectious diseases, see an ENT, have a vision screen (looks like more glasses in our future), get a height and weight, and then do a blood draw for his TB test. He was a trooper and didn’t bat an eye about the whole thing. I told him he was brave about the blood draw and he said he’d had to do that many times and never cried. I was just thinking how much more he’s going to have to go through when he gets to the States, and it makes me sad for him, but also happy they can help. We saw several other adoptive families there, and there are also several staying at our hotel this time because everyone has to finalize in Guangzhou, but he is by far the oldest kid we’ve seen being adopted.

We had a great afternoon playing together. He was laughing so hard several times that he couldn’t breathe. He tackles us all, gives us all kisses now, is perfectly content to be hugged or touched, and talked about school at home and the dogs. It was a great afternoon. And then tonight at dinner he just started to cry. It was like the more he tried to stop, the more he cried. And our translation software doesn’t work very well outside of the hotel because we need wifi, and he couldn’t tell us, and couldn’t tell us, and Nathan said one more time, “Can you try?” and he just looked at us and burst out, “I miss Chinese mother! I miss Chinese mother!” and just sobbed. It absolutely broke my heart.

He let us both hug him and comfort him. It’s an interesting thing because I would think he would want to reject us, but he doesn’t – he seems to genuinely like us and I know he loves the kids and all the fun. He doesn’t blame us or think we’re “taking him away.” He’s been well prepared and knows this is how it is. But he is really homesick and he loves his foster parents. Again, I really admire him because he seems to just be able to acknowledge his feelings and be very open to us at the same time. He’s such a brave kid. I already love him, and I am so extremely sorry that he has to go through what he has to go through. I know in my head that it’s so much better for him and his attachment to us in the long run that he was loved well and so attached to his foster family, but it makes the now hard.

He’s snuggled up against Nathan right now playing a game on Nathan’s phone, and he’s smiling and laughing. He’s such a special kid. Please keep praying for him, for God to comfort his heart and continue making him brave, and for us as we finish all this up and bring him home. I say it often, but it’s so true – we are so grateful for your prayers and can feel them every moment.

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