After a 2 1/2 hour delay in Beijing due to piles and piles of snow, we finally arrived in Nanchang at 4:30pm. Noah was already in the hotel waiting for us and we saw him as soon as we walked into the lobby. Needless to say it was a very emotional experience! We were told to go to our room and get settled and they would bring him to us. Ten minutes later they brought him up and we got to meet him. We talked to the orphanage staff that brought him on his 3 hour journey from his village and they told us that the entire town was out to say goodbye to him earlier that morning. They all loved him very much and he was quite the popular little guy in his village. They also told us that he is stubborn and cries a lot when he doesn't get his way.... it didn't take long for us to figure out that what they said was true. As soon as they left he started screaming and he didn't stop until at least 3 hours later when he took a short break to eat some snacks. Welcome to the world of
toddlerhood! Not only did he scream at the top of his lungs, he kept putting his jacket back on and trying to get us to open the door. He held on tightly to the picture book we had sent him and carried his water bottle and a block everywhere he went, refusing to put any of it down and screaming even louder if I tried to touch it. When I didn't do what he wanted he actually grabbed me by the neck of my shirt and pulled me over, all the while screaming in my ear! Once he figured out that I wasn't going anywhere, he went over to Peter and tried the same thing. We pulled out all of our bags of toys and tricks and rather than playing with them, he decided to throw them at us! After endless hours of this "entertainment" lets just say we were a bit worn out.... Even though this is what we expected, it is still really hard to just listen to him cry endlessly for his "
yaya and mama". He was really attached to his foster parents as they are the only parents he has ever known. In the long run, that bond will be a good thing, but it really makes the interim transition a lot harder since he is grieving very heavily and can't figure out what has happened to them and why they are not coming back. My heart breaks for him
every time I think about why he is crying. It makes it even harder that we can't talk to him in a language he understands to comfort him or try to explain. So we just give him lots of hugs and kisses and try to be patient.
Noah finally fell asleep around 10pm and we were able to get a bit of a break. He woke up crying multiple times during the night and at some point in the middle of the night (not sure when) we realized that he had exploding diarrhea! What a pleasant surprise! Luckily he kind of knows how to use the potty and we brought plenty of pull-ups so we made it through alright.
This morning he started screaming again around 4am so that was the end of any rest we thought we might get. We had to be ready to go at 8:30am to head over to the Government Offices to make things official so between the screaming and diarrhea we managed to get him sponged clean and dressed to go. We made ourselves moderately presentable and then headed down to the lobby to meet the other family that is here with us and our guide.
We arrived at the Civil Affairs office and were met by the orphanage directors and other officials. After an official picture and a few questions, they declared the adoption as final and he is now ours, for better or worse :) We then made a quick stop at the notary's office where we were asked even more questions and then we went to the all important Wal-Mart to stock up on supplies. Yes, Wal-Mart is everywhere... even in the poorest part of China, and it is just as busy as at home. They have many of the same items we have at home, but they also have a wild assortment of strange delicacies like dried starfish and insects and who knows what else! Noah apparently really likes sweets and started grabbing anything in a shiny package that looked like candy. He and Peter will get along well :)
We had a quick lunch at KFC and went back to the hotel where the screaming has commenced once again. Once again we pulled out our bag of tricks and he threw them at us :) He is starting to come to us for comfort though and that is a good sign.... We are hoping that the worst is behind us in terms of the grieving process, but it's hard to know. In any case, we're pretty sure that we have a stubborn, strong-willed little boy on our hands, who doesn't give up when he sets his mind on something! Peter says it's payback since we are both pretty stubborn ourselves :)
Well, I'd better give Peter a break from the crying.... We'll fill you in again when we get a chance.
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