We have our son!!

Well, they finally arrived yesterday at 11:05 pm!! They supposedly left Qingyang at 7:00 in the morning and hit traffic. Either way, we were glad to see them. I was in the other room checking on the sleeping Jonah when they came by. Here is a picture of the little guy when I came back into Cheryl's room:

The hotel is extremely hot, so they started shedding layers. The orphanage director is the smiling gentleman with the black leather coat, and I asked if the two women were nannies. They aren't nannies, but some type of orphanage officials. They had brought many of the clothes that we had sent in the care packages even though we had said that it was ok to donate them to the orphanage. They also brought two disposable cameras that we had sent which are full of pictures! We can't wait to get back to the US and get prints!! The orphanage director also asked for one of the pictures of our family which we had sent in a photo album for Grady Guoyu to keep as a memorial.

Grady Guoyu wasn't crying, just looking around stunned and sweating up a storm. The kid had been dragged on a bus for a very long day!!

After they shed some layers, they let us hold him. I was definitely teary eyed at this point. Our guide, Yisha, was asking the questions that I had written to ask at this day, and she was writing down the answers in Chinese. There was also a Guardianship agreement that the orphanage director had brought for us to sign. It was crazy in there, and Cheryl was doing her very best to take pictures, and here are some of the best ones I could find today. Really, it's hard to get pictures of him and of us where we aren't blocked out by all the action in the background.


At this point, he got fussy, and the officials said he needed a bottle. They set him up on a bed with a bottle. Here is a good picture of him.
He was pretty stressed out by now with the action, the people, the camera, and the noise. He was trying to stroke the side of his face and was hitting himself in the face. He did let Ryan and I stroke his face. This is how Ryan was able to get him to sleep later as well. It seems to be one of the self-soothing measures he used in the orphanage.

One thing about having the officials instead of the nannies bring him to us is that they were not able to give us very specific information about him. They told us that they call him Guo Yu and that he doesn't have a nickname. Since he doesn't really seem to respond to that name, we've been calling him Grady. (I know that I have a bad accent in Mandarin anyway!!) They didn't know what made him sad, happy, or scared specifically, just all the babies in general. It is disappointing to not know specifics but we do understand that the nannies are really busy. Yisha was surprised at the formula they made for him/ left the rest of the bag with us. She said that it is milk formula with sweetener but it is not for babies and does not contain vitamins and minerals that babies need. He seems fat, but not healthy fat, just chunky fat with no underlying muscle. So, we are giving him actual formula, and soon we will try to add rice cereal. I tried to give him a melt in your mouth Gerber star fruit flavored snack, but since he isn't used to being fed anything besides a bottle, he was not pleased. When we get back to the States, I'm sure that the pediatrician will have some ideas about how best to meet his nutritional needs.

He doesn't have any real muscle tone. It seems that he spends his days mostly propped up in his crib. If you hold him upright, he bends his knees up and doesn't attempt to stand or put his feet underneath him. He has good head control, and can sit by himself for short amounts of time, although he does occasionally get tired quickly. This morning, Jonah and I were playing with Grady on the floor, and he did attempt to go after toys that were a little far away from him. He can move a little but not with a traditional crawl. He doesn't babble or make many sounds. He does make some sounds with his lips, so I've been playing with him with those sounds. Really, I think that having better nutrition and more one on one interaction will help him catch up....and we will provide whatever else is needed to help him catch up developmentally.

Today was our first day as a family of four trying to get ready in the morning. Thank goodness Cheryl is here!! We had to meet in the lobby at 9. Cheryl and Jonah stayed back here. Jonah is tired of being fawned over, and taken pictures of (the life of a blond kid in China). He had a great time with Cheryl playing with trucks and trains and coloring in the hotel.

Ryan, Grady, and I went with our group to have our pictures taken for the adoption decree, and Grady's picture taken for his passport. After that, we went to the provincial office to sign paperwork and pay fees. Unfortunately, we were busy with that and didn't get many pictures. Here are the ones we got:


The last picture is of the orphanage officials and the orphanage director with us. They also gave us a photo album. It was a very nice gesture. It has some old pictures of him.

Also, if you are wondering why he still has his split pants on, the reason is that we had learned that you should try to minimize the changes at first and leave the clothes that he came in on for the first 24 hours. The sweater that he has on in this picture is the one that I sent him in the last care package which they brought him to us in.

Well, that is probably a big enough post for today!! While writing this entry and uploading the pictures, I was looking at how scared Grady looked at first. We have only had him for less than a day, but I think he is getting more comfortable with us. He does seem to like being held because he leans into us. He definitely likes having his face and his head stroked. We are so happy to finally be together and to be getting to know each other as a family. Tomorrow, I will post some pictures of the new brothers together.