Today we finalized Katie's adoption in the eyes of the Chinese government and heard the beautiful words "In the eyes of China she is officially yours." It is just a combination of letters / sounds / syllables, but they sound so wonderful when they are put together in that order!!!!
Katie and Jaden have continued to get to know each other, with Jaden working through such a major life change very well as he tries to figure out what it means to suddenly be a big brother and yet also still be four years old.
If Katie gets unhappy (which usually happens when she is getting a diaper change) he wants to go get her a bottle. Also, when it is time for a diaper change he goes and gets everything she needs. He also goes and gets her shoes when we are going to leave the room, and he puts them away for her when we get back to the room. And he has been great sharing his toys. Only once there was something he did not want her to play with and you could tell he was torn about it. Mom stepped in and showed him how to distract her with another toy ... Problem averted. All in all he has been absolutely awesome!
He was looking at the photo pillow that we had sent to Katie and said, "I want to see Jiejie and Gege." (unfortunately it looks like the pillow was never given to her ... I guess they just put it away to give to us when we got her ... Umm, thanks, we've seen our faces ... Oh well.). Anyway, Jaden is having lots of fun here, but he is wanting all of his family to be together too. His favorite times at home are when we are all there together, even if we are all off doing separate things.
Katie has started coming out if her shell more, looking less and less shell-shocked. She has been exploring the hotel room and likes to gather all of the toys that she can and carry them around with her, or carry them to Mama for her to hold for her.
She is a Mama's baby right now, and for the most part isn't too comfortable with Daddy. I totally understand that, as it is a very common in the adoption world where the orphans have had no time around males at all. I know that in time love will take care of this, so I can wait and understand. She has been willing to walk to me a couple of time when I asked her to, and she used her big eyes on me for the first time at nap time ... She looked at me with those beautiful eyes and willed me to get her out if her crib when it was nap time today. After that she let me hold her for quite a while ... Hey, don't judge me ... it looked to me like she was scared! :-) anyway, it was a very special time for me to be able to comfort her.
She has been a very good sleeper. Her nanny at the orphanage said she is a good sleeper and sleeps well at night and at nap time (which should make her big sister very happy). She slept about 12 hours the first night and we had to wake her up from her nap this afternoon. I remember the first couple of nights with Jaden when he slept so long at a time and also so deeply ... Some of it just has to be emotional exhaustion. I cannot imagine what she is going through right now, but she has been an absolute joy and treasure and has been a trooper.
As every hour goes by she has been getting more and more adventurous in the room and has started to play with Jaden more, seeking him out to take toys to him and trying to get his attention when he is doing other things.
Even as I have been typing this, she and Jaden are interacting more and more. There is a drawer that Jaden has been keeping all of his toys in, and she has been having him open it then she takes a toy and puts it in the drawer then closes it and then she has him open it again so she can repeat ... Etc, etc, etc. Very cute.
When we go out of the room Tracy usually has her in one of the baby carriers and Katie just snuggles into her chest and stays there like she doesn't have a care in the world. She did that today for the 3 hours or so that we went around town today to the various government offices to finalize her adoption in the Chinese court system, and Katie (and Mama) were very content!
That's all for tonight ... Time to get the kiddos down for the night (and the parents, too!)
Thanks everyone for the prayers, support, and love.
Sent from my iPad
The scenic pics are from her orphanage, btw. I'm just adding pics as it will let me. :)
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