Waiting for paperwork

These days we are in Lanzhou waiting for paperwork to process. We are waiting for Grady's Chinese passport (he will travel home on a Chinese passport with an American visa) and the adoption decree and other adoption documents. I think that is pretty much what we are doing this week.

So, as promised, here are some pictures of Jonah and Grady together:

This is from yesterday morning. As you recall, Grady came at 11:05 pm, so Jonah met him the following morning (Monday the 18th). Jonah was so excited to meet his brother!

This is from the same morning after Jonah got his clothes on.

This is this morning (Tuesday the 19th)...Jonah was having fun pushing Grady around our hotel.

Grady is doing better. We are giving him real baby formula with rice cereal in it. He likes it, and is eating, sleeping, and digesting well! :)


He is liking us more and more. He likes to be held and he leans into us. Today when I was putting him down for his nap, I put him down like we have been doing, and he cried until I picked him up. I stroked his face and held him and he almost fell asleep in my arms. He wasn't pleased when I laid him back down again. I stroked his face and helped him go to sleep. That was wonderful. He is a really cuddly little guy! :)

When playing, he is showing us he can do more things. I think some of the issue was that he was so scared before...he still can't do many things, but we hope he'll be able to do more and more especially as he gets more used to us. This morning, he was able to pull himself to a sitting position (a tripod sitting position) from the floor where he was prone. His favorite thing to do with the toys is push them away, move forward a little bit after them, and then push them away again. He did get up into a traditional crawling position and rock a little bit, but he doesn't crawl from that position.

Jonah is doing pretty well. He sometimes gets a little jealous and puts his hands in his mouth and whines a little like Grady, but he does like that he knows how to do things that his brother can't do. He gets the most jealous when tired, cold, or hungry. The very hardest thing for Jonah right now is that he doesn't like all the attention he is getting for being a blond little kid outside in China. He doesn't like people constantly coming up to him really close to his face to talk to him, pat his head, or stroke his hands. He is actually relieved to just be at home at the hotel playing with his toys, which for those of you who know Jonah is not usual for his social, active personality. We're trying to block the way and give him a little more space away from people when outside when possible. Poor little guy...how hard to get a brother and deal with sibling rivalry issues as well as culture shock issues and be away from home at the same time!!!! We have been able to have good playtime with him, however, and he was very excited when we went to KFC today (he wanted the comfort food of french fries) because they had a little play area there. We have to be in Lanzhou until Saturday night waiting for things to process, so if need be, we might visit there again.

Tomorrow, our guide Yisha is taking us on a little walk by the Yellow River. Until then, thanks for the well wishes and prayers! :)