Gotcha Day

We left Hong Kong with little fanfare. We loaded on the bus, went to the airport and flew to Nanchang. There was no problems with baggage, flights. The meal was pork sausage balls in chili sauce with beans.  We flew into Nanchang. We met our guide Evelyn and her trainee Amy. We rode on a bus about 45 minutes to the hotel. We are staying in Old Nanchang. The claim to fame was the August 1, 1927 uprising. There are many things labeled August 1-the mall, the town square... etc.

We arrived at the hotel in the evening. We had a 1 and half hour crash course in raising a Chinese Baby....Good. Our Gotcha Day was at 5pm. We were the first family to receive a baby out of about 7 families. Hudson cried, screamed carried on. He did not like the idea of leaving the orphanage directors. He came up earlier in the morning with staff from New Day. We met in a large conference room. We handed the orphanage staff a few small gifts and they handed us the babies. Needless to say.There were many tears of joy on the part of the parents and tears of sorrow on the part of the children. There are 5 girls and 2 boys in our group. Hudson is the second oldest. 

Hudson grieved. We took him back to the room and he screamed and pounded on the door to go out. Our guide suggested that we take him to the playroom.  He was happy at the playroom. He slowly warmed up to us. He played hide and seek with us. We had pizza hut in the playroom. Hudson kept putting pieces of his lunch on the tray of a walker. He would fill up his mouth like a chipmunk and then want to drink water. We found out that he likes to drink from a sippy cup and a straw.

What is it like....It feels like getting married. There is a joyous ceremony followed by a lifetime commitment to another individual.  It is definitely different than having a baby the old fashioned way. Adopting Hudson is commiting to an individual with a personality...likes and dislikes.

After playing in the playroom and then starting to warm up to us, Doug went to a meeting.  Hudson and I spent some time together. We went to the gym. He looked with bemusement at the gym equipment. He loved looking out the window onto the street below.

My brother has a child that he describes as "all boy"   I never knew what that truly meant until I met Hudson. In the space of a couple of minutes, he tried to feed the fish his straw in the koi pond, then he tried to chase the automatic revolving door. He then tried to walk out the revolving door. He wedged himself between the bellman's cart and the window.  Once extracted, he tried to push the cart around.  He laughs when in mischief... cute, but you have to watch him every minute.

On the way up to the room, he snagged  a placard and pulled it down. To add to that he played with a large ashtray in the room. He managed to catch his sleeve in it.

Yes all boy..just like cousin....

He went to bed with no complaints.  He is cute. We found that he is a 2t, 3T with brace on his arm 

Gotcha day

We got up this morning... ate breakfast in the buffet. Hudson ate melon, tried to put his fork in his drink, tried to feed me, etc... Mischief.

We went to the local civial affairs office to have pictures taken, notary, interview, and talk to the orphanage director. She said that Hudson was a good eater and rarely sick.  We saw a the red letter written by his mother the day she dropped him off. It was written on soft red paper in black chinese letters. It said born March 13, 2006. We took a picture of it for him... It was bitter sweet. We could not take it with us because it belongs in the orphanage files. It was the only thing that we have linking Hudson to his birth mother.

We went 3 other places taking pictures and filing out documents. Hudson laughed the whole way. He was correcting my Chinese.  It was soooo funny. When I would imitate a phase that he was saying, he would shake his head and say NOOOOOOO if I had it wrong.  He learned Hello.  Then bus.  Then every bus that he would see he would say BEEP BEEP! 

He likes sweet baby, good baby boy, shhh shhh in chinese are his favorite phrases. He also learned KNOCK KNOCK in english and BUS.  He laughs so much....loves to be held, He eats VERY WELL

He is built like a football player.  He is SOO adorable with a sweet personality once he warms up to you. Everyone has been telling us that he is very beautiful for a Chinese baby.

There is so much to say and so little time. I wish that we could talk to you'all. We are going to be going to department store tonight and then out to dinner. Hudson is a blend of Laura's laughter and love of life and Emma curiosity. 

We still have along way to go on the bonding department...He call me ma ma and doug baba.  He is already preferring us to strangers..