We are at the end of day 4 in China and it has been another busy day. We started our morning when Jude woke up at 7. We played in the room and SKYPE’d with the kids, then had breakfast at the hotel. The hotel breakfast is crazy.. there are so many different kids of food there. In China it’s normal to eat noodles, vegetables and pork for breakfast.. So there are those sorts of options, and also some more western options.  Michael has enjoyed it so much, but I (Mary) have been a little too homesick to eat much. Honestly, even the western food here doesn’t really taste right to me? I never really thought I was a picky eater, but I guess I am in China! We splurged for a coffee today at Starbucks and it had little chunks of fruit in it? Food is very different here.
After breakfast, we played in an indoor play room at the hotel. It was sort of lame with just a few hand me down looking toys, but he loved it there! I guess we will go back again 🙂

We ate lunch in our room- pb&j never tasted so good! And then Jude slept for nearly 3 hours! Afterward, we had to go to the police station for some other adoption legalities. Jude is a very, very active boy who knows what he wants and he does not like having to sit still at all of these appointments.  We continue to work through the tantrums. He seems to always throw them in public? They are the down on the floor, knockout drag out kind, complete with kicking, screaming, and flailing. Today we began to tell him stern “NO’s” and squeeze his little hand. He doesn’t like it, but we feel like although he still threw tantrums today, we felt more in control of the situation, which made it much better. (Yesterday, we were really not in control!)

He seems to be bonding very well. He tends to want me for everything (holding him, changing his diaper, feeding him, and he will only let me push the stroller. Michael tried to take him for a walk today and they made it about 10 steps out the door before turning around because he was screaming! He does like Michael and will laugh at him, but he doesn’t really want to be handled by him yet.) I know it all come in time! In the meantime, I am super tired!

Our guide suggested a riverboat dinner tour tonight and from the get-go I was apprehensive, but we decided to go with another couple who adopted a little girl around Jude’s age. Let’s just say it was probably not our best decision. He threw a couple tantrums, but there wasn’t anywhere that we could go because we were on a boat! We were so relieved when that ride was over!

He has been calling me “E-ut” which means nanny/auntie. Today he  called me mama a couple times which was a huge encouragement. He lets me kiss and hug him all the time and typically smiles when I do, but today he gave me a hug, which was awesome.

We are learning that he has a very strong will and he is super smart. He loves to be tickled and loves musical toys (anything with buttons!) He has an amazing smile and is a really good sleeper. He loves to feed me his snacks all day long out of his snack cup. 🙂 On the riverboat tour he was chatting away about something and pointing. It’s so sad not understanding what he is saying.

We have been calling him Luo Luo, but tomorrow we will try to add Jude to it.. Hoping he catches on quickly! Thank you all for praying! Keep them up! Specifically pray that he would begin to let Michael care for him more. It’s hard for Michael to watch me exausted and not be able to help. (He  also really wants to hold and kiss Jude, of course.) Also, please pray for Jude’s little heart as we can tell he is having a tough time processing this and is probably really missing his foster mom. We are sure the the tantrums are in part do to this, so we try to extend him compassion. Also please pray for our homesickness. We both have it bad and can’t stop thinking about Ava and Jesse. Days feel very very long and we both find ourselves counting down the hours until we can bring him home… which is bad because there are a lot of hours left. We are so thankful for your prayers.. they are sustaining us.

We are trying to find some place to have western food for Thanksgiving, but we are not having much luck. We may end up with KFC, which I hate in the states, but it sounds pretty appealing here! Will let you know what we find. We love you guys