Finalizing the Adoption and Bonding

Maddox slept all night last night in his crib next to Stephanie. He tossed and turned a lot but did not make a peep. We woke up and started to learn how long it takes to get ready in the morning and eat breakfast when you have a child! To finalize the adoption, we traveled back to the government building where we had met Maddox yesterday. Part of the process is giving us around 24 hours alone with him to make sure we still wanted to adopt him. So, carrying the equivalent of $6000 in cash in Chinese currency (I felt like a gangster), along with 5 boxes of cosmetics from a famous Chinese beauty company as gifts for the women from the orphanage, we arrived in the same building that smelled of cigarette smoke. Maddox was much happier this time but was attached to us throughout the whole process. It was kind of neat because the women from the orphanage held out their arms to offer to hold him, but he had none of that - he wanted to stay with us. We signed a million papers (most of which were written in Chinese - I told Stephanie we may have just signed away all our possessions for all I knew). Red ink thumbprints over our signatures and a red ink hand print from Maddox sealed the deal. We said our goodbyes and sincerely thanked the women who had cared for our son for almost 2 years. Maddox even waved goodbye (we hadn't seen him do that yet) and I personally think that at least at that moment he understood that he was leaving them and staying with us.

I must confess, I found out that the sit down picture we tried to take yesterday was not just a money-making scheme, it was a photo of the three of us that was actually required as part of the adoption and goes on a very important document! My bad there. Anyway, since Maddox was crying in the one yesterday we had to repeat that today and it went much better.

Today Maddox seemed more tearful and distraught whenever Stephanie put him down. He was almost listless at times in her arms. He still has a bad cough and we wonder if some of this behavior is that he is just sick. We listened to his lungs ear-to-chest and didn't hear any consolidation but Stephanie decided to start him on antibiotics today just in case of a bacterial infection. [Stephanie's disclaimer for all the medical folks: She wouldn't normally do this at home, but we don't know how long he has been sick, etc.] We also gave him some Motrin and he did seem to perk up after that. Meal times always bring out the best in him. He sits up and is attentive to every move of our chopsticks! We ate some delicious local cuisine for lunch and dinner and he really chowed down. Noodles are the specialty in Shanxi. Tonight, Stephanie read to him and he paid careful attention to the pages. He also said his first English words (we think). Stephanie asked him if it was bath time or play time and he said "play time", or at least "pay tie". He said it twice, so we don't think it was a fluke. We bought him a little Winnie the Pooh ball to play with and a wooden toy with the stiff wires and beads that you run over them like an abacus and he liked both of those. We are learning so much about him every minute. Tomorrow, we get to visit a 3000 year old temple here in Taiyuan. Of note, Shanxi Provence is one of the oldest settled areas in China, dating back over 5000 years. JP