Two steps forward and one step back...

Yesterday we enjoyed getting to know Michael a little bit better, but wow, blogging is hard when you have a child physically attached to you whenever you're in the hotel room. Michael is letting us in a little bit more, which means he has been willing to cry with us--hooray for that, hard as it is to see--but he has also decided that when he is unhappy, he wants Mama, and when it's playtime, he wants Baba. 

And his favorite toys, by far, are still his stacking cups. He prefers to nest them rather than to stack them, and he carries the big red one around when we go outside the room. And he hangs onto it, too. I thought he might start dropping it--and he still might--but he has dropped it only once and it was an accident.

Best $3 purchase we made for this trip.

We brought the red cup along for the finalization of Michael's adoption yesterday. Since he woke up at 4 a.m. yesterday (and today too), he was exhausted and fell asleep before we arrived at the same office where we met him the day before.

I didn't take any picture of that space yesterday--we were a bit preoccupied with meeting Michael himself--but John and I were impressed with the decor. The room in Changsha, where we met Louis, has more of a courtroom feel. It had cold, bare wooden benches, and definitely felt like a government office space. The Guangdong office is much friendlier.

There is a separate play area for children, where Michael was waiting for us yesterday. (The first photo on my last blog, shot in paparazzi mode, showed Michael here.)

I loved this sign on the wall, especially when they told us we had to wake our sleeping son for the family photo.

He was sleeping so soundly.

He wasn't very happy.

I'm actually glad to have that picture for another reason--because every time I see his little crying face scrunched up like that, I am working on comforting him and obviously not using the camera. He was relieved--though not happy--when he got to be back in my arms.

He did enjoy the lollipop I found in my purse.

Meanwhile, our little guy has also decided he hates our hotel room (I'm afraid he read my blog lamenting that we weren't at the White Swan the other day) and he starts crying when we get to the hotel room door. Louis used to find our hotel room a sad place because he did so much grieving there, but then we left our first hotel and changed cities and hotels halfway through that trip. Unfortunately for Michael--though we were happy enough to book just one hotel stay--we are here for the whole trip. We're doing what we can to make the room a fun place, and to take walks and get out and about a little more. We can't give in all the time, though. Sometimes, though he thinks otherwise, we do need to sleep!

One good thing about the hotel (which is growing on us in some ways) is the waterfall we found in a courtyard area by the playground. Thank you, Paige, for the tip!

Yesterday Michael ate more and more as the day went on, and we're hoping that's a sign he's settling in. (There's another sign we are waiting for too, but I won't get into details on that one.)

There's something so cute about little boys enjoying their noodles.

 

In between the moments of grieving and anxiety, we are catching glimmers of a sense of humor and a sweet little personality. Michael has talked more than Louis did in his first days with us--and yes, we are trying hard not to compare them. But he has these moments when he lets down his guard and talks about his toys or about a situation, and hopefully he isn't terribly disappointed that we don't respond appropriately.

Overall, we think he's doing beautifully and handling a very difficult adjustment as well as you can expect a child his age to handle it. This morning he has let Baba hold him to comfort him and they are playing together and feeding each other crackers and koala cookies.

He also took a long walk through the hotel hallways with us last night, walking on his own, one hand in each of ours. Before that, he had been refusing to walk at all, so that was a great step forward for us.

Maybe we'll  even get some more sleep time in today. We got no real nap yesterday--and not for lack of trying. In fact, I think his distress over the room may be that we want him to sleep, and he doesn't want to sleep. But he slept better last night--7 to 4--which, while not ideal, was better than the night before. For now we don't actually mind that he's waking up at 4 since we're up by 3 or 4 a.m. ourselves.

We're hopeful it will be a good day.





And I hope to see more of his smile.