Day 12

Today is the day we got Seth! 

We started the morning in our new hotel, in Zhengzhou. We were all anxious to have some different choices on the breakfast buffet. As it turns out, it was pretty underwhelming. But, being dissatisfied with a breakfast buffet is a pretty good problem to have...:) At breakfast, there were a ton of other American families, all adopting or assisting with adoptions. Anne and Kris agreed that it was a refreshing change to hear people speaking English all around us. Can you tell that we are ready to come home? :)

We had to meet our guide at 9:30, and since we ate breakfast at 6:30, that left us with some time to kill in the morning. The kids filled that with hide and seek. Our hotel rooms have a surprising number of places to hide. We thought it was fun that Ruthie seemed to know how to play. She's fitting right in with our kids. I forgot to mention yesterday that she spent most of the flight saying her ABCs with Anne. Today, she could remember all the way through "G" on her own. Smart kid.

We met our guide in the lobby, and she gave us a copy of today's newspapers in Chinese and English to keep as a souvenir for Seth. We have copies of newspapers from the day of our birth (thanks, Mom!) and from our other bio kids, so that was a nice gesture.

I've attached a video of us picking up Seth, but I'll tell you about it here. Just as with Ruthie, we had to wait quite a while. Still, it was fun to see other parents meeting their kids for the first time.

When we finally got Seth, he didn't cry at all. He seemed a little curious, and was looking at our faces pretty hard, but didn't show a lot of emotion. That made us pretty sad, since it is a sign that he's been neglected. He wasn't sad to leave anyone, and he didn't seem scared to be with us. We've got our work cut out for us with him. He is really tan and was not very clean. We are guessing that his foster family is rural, and maybe they just strap him on their back and work in the sun all day. It is hard to know many details, since the Chinese are reluctant to give you a straight story. It si a very important and deeply ingrained part of the culture here, that they would never admit to anything less than excellent care. But, we knew that there would be some questions going in, and we are glad to have him now. One thing we think God is teaching us on this trip is to take each day as it comes. "Moment by moment" is what we keep telling ourselves. God is taking good care of us today, and we're grateful for that. 

Ruthie wasn't sure what to think. She was a little taken aback, as if to say, "Hey, I'm your kid, not that baby." But, we gave her lots of attention, too, and I think she'll settle in OK. 

After getting Seth, we went to Wal Mart to pick up some basic supplies. Walking around the store, Seth had a lot of fun with Elliott. Elliott could make him laugh a bit, and that was fun to see. Ruthie went around, as she's been doing, giving all of us kisses. Kris was holding Seth, and she kissed Kris, but wouldn't kiss Seth yet. She just waved to him instead.

After getting back to the hotel, we gave him a bath. Ruthie had to get a bath too, then. We just about burned through our whole supply of ear swabs cleaning the dirt out of his ears, but he is a nice, clean, sweet smelling boy now. 

He's got some bumps and rashy looking spots, but we think it might just be bug bites. They told us he hadn't been back to the orphanage since the measles outbreak, and they said only 3 kids had measles, so that is two bits of good news. Still, we'd appreciate your prayers for all of our health. 

Here's a video of Seth when we got him back to the hotel:

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/21147169/Seth.zip

After both the new kids took a very long nap, we met our guide in the lobby. She had agreed to show us the neighborhood near our hotel and to take us to dinner. There is a Walmart within walking distance, a park, a small grocery store, and a bakery. We ate dinner at a small noodle restaurant. Noodles are the primary cuisine of this area, and this place was actually pretty good. Our favorite part of the meal was Ruthie. She ate 4 or 5 bowls of noodles and beef in broth (with chopsticks). She kept asking for more, and then after she'd eaten all the noodles she tipped up her bowl and drank it dry!

Seth ate pretty well, but it seems clear to us that he hasn't had any real solid food before. He can do a bottle without a problem, but he has trouble eating anything else. So, that's a bit different than our expectations. 

As we were getting ready for bed, Anne was using the flashlight to look at a spot on Seth's head. Ruthie thought that was pretty interesting, and so she used the flashlight to look at all of our heads. She's not sure what to make of this baby quite yet, but she's warming up to him slowly. Very slowly. 

Tomorrow, we'll go and get Seth's registration certificate, which makes us legally his parents. Then, he can apply for a passport so we can fly him home. We hate to have to wait here until Friday, but...moment by moment.