Gotcha!

Oh my, we finally have our son. He's asleep in his crib right now. We started out on the bed because he didn't want to be in his crib, but once he fell asleep we moved him to the crib. That woke him up and we had more tears, but Violet managed to get him asleep by singing to him, that and he was just worn out.

This was quite a Gotcha Day. First, they moved our appointment from 3 p.m. to 6 p.m. Then, they decided we wouldn't go to the Xian civil affairs office. Instead, they brought him to our room at the hotel.

Let me tell you, he didn't want to be here at all. They were walking up to the door when we opened it, and Jake took one look at us and started to back away, and the tears started. The nanny that came with him was pretty good, helping calm him. Plus, Violet held him in spite of his best efforts and with the help of Cheerios — thank God for Cheerios — got him to calm down.

It was a hectic time, with both of us throwing all our stuff into suitcases (after just arranging them) and trying to make room for the directors and the nanny and Jake. When we finally got him settled and all the paperwork was done and he was intense with his Cheerios play the directors and nanny left. We played and waited until it dawned on him that everyone was gone but us, and when he finally did, he went into a crying fit. Finally we got him calmed and redressed and fed (he hadn't ate since noon - it was so cute to watch him watch Kevin make the bottle. Jake never took his eyes off him. He was a hungry boy!) to take him to his photos (because they couldn't get it to us quick enough if we did it tomorrow) but of course it was 6:20 p.m. and they closed at 7 p.m.

By the time we got him calmed and dressed we decided to take a taxi to make it on time, but there was not a taxi to be had, so they called us and decided to do the pictures tomorrow after all.

Meanwhile, Violet's arm is mush. We thought he was bonded more toward Violet than Kevin, so Kevin went downstairs to exchange some money, but Jake started crying really bad (the leaving people act definitely is getting old with him.)

Another thing he doesn't like is elevators – cries everytime he gets on one.

Well, we're going to wrap it up, Jake is awake and crying, so we're going to work on getting him back to sleep.

Thanks everyone.

Kevin and Violet

Oh yeah, he is small and short, and it's a good thing the shoes he came in were not pink, because they are the only ones we have that fit him. Bye for now.

Plenty of tears, here; can't wait for the smiles.





We did want to say that the black under his eye is not dirt. The orphanage director said he got a shiner playing last week on the slide at the playground. It still shows up now, so we can only imagine what it looked like then.