Prayers answered!

Thank you all for praying because God answered our prayers and I finally got a good night of sleep last night and Zeke's temperature is almost normal today (99 degrees).  Praise the Lord! 

Today we had our official paperwork with the provincial affairs to make the adoption legal.  That went smoothly.  The worst part was trying to explain why we would want to adopt a child when we already had 3 children without saying something about God and our faith.  (We were advised not to answer that question with anything regarding Christianity.) 

For the first 48 hours that we had Zeke he was pretty much in shut-down mode.  He just sat there expression-less.  He didn't make any sounds and we knew he could talk.  He occasionally cried.  He didn't want to play with anything and didn't do much except sleep and sit there.  Today he began to open up to us.  We saw some grief - he arched his back and cried.  He pointed to things and said something or grunted.  He reached for me and wanted to be held sometimes.  He enjoyed playing with bubbles and enjoyed popping them.  He had fun moving crayons from one cup to another.  He began eating a more variety of things.  He occasionally went back into shut-down mode.  This is stressful for him so the easiest thing for him to do is just close up and sleep or be expressionless. 

Late this afternoon we went to pick up Zeke's passport.  When we came back to the hotel we were able to meet another family that our guide is helping. They are from Georgia and just got here today and recieved their son as soon as they got here.  Their son happens to be Zeke's friend (according to the orphanage workers) - Zeke wants no part of interacting with any one other than Bruce and I at this point.  We thought seeing his friend would be good for him but he could have cared less.  He actually tried to not look at his friend every time I would turn so he could see his friend, Sam, he would flip his head the other way! 

For supper tonight we were going to try the Italian restaurant that is in our hotel but we were informed that it is under renovation and doesn't open until July 1st.  So Alex, the nice man who works here, helped us to find another restaurant.  We asked if there were any western style restaurants within walking distance.  He told us that there was a McDonalds not too far and he drew us a map!  We set off on our own little adventure with his hand-drawn map and his business card in our pocket in case we would get lost - he spoke good English so he would help us if we got lost!  It was fun and we found the McDonalds with no problem - it was exactly as he said.  The only obstacle was having to cross 2 major intersections which in China is a big deal!  Cars do NOT yield to pedestrians!  We found another man who was definitely a local and we followed him - and I mean we were right on his tail!  We didn't want to be a step behind him or we could have had a car or motorbike jump between us!  It's just crazy how they drive around here - it's hard to explain - it seems like there are no rules and everyone just does there own thing. 

We were able to order our food by pointing at the menu.  We wanted a chicken sandwich combo.  We ended up with spicey chicken because we couldn't tell from the picture that it was spicy.  It was still good.  We wanted soda without ice (because we can't drink the water here) so Bruce had to take our drinks back and show them the ice and shook his head no.  They got it and fixed it.  Bruce even went back and ordered icecream cones (again by pointing).  Zeke was having fun eating cheerios throughout our meal and was even trying to feed some to Mommy!  When our icecream came out he allowed me to put some in his mouth.  At first he made a funny face because he probably never had anything so cold before.  In China they don't ever feed babies anything cold - even water is warmed up before given to the baby - I got yelled at from our guide that I shouldn't give him such cold water - it was slightly warmer than room temp!  Anyway, he loved the icecream and wanted more! 

Our Hotel                                             

We made our way back to the hotel, again trailed behind people who were crossing the same time we were.  They probably thought us Americans were crazy getting so close to them but then again they don't seem to care about invading personal space so they probably were just shocked to see 2 americans - one of which is quite tall!  We were getting a lot of attention around town tonight.  I guess they don't see too many white people around this city as they do in Beijing.

When we put Zeke to bed tonight he threw a fit.  Before we would just lay him down and he would whimper but he would settle right down - it was probably part of the shut-down mode.  Now that the real Zeke is coming out and he is starting to bond with this new Mommy and Daddy he didn't want us to let him go and lay there by himself.  We kept reassuring him that we were here and then I sat here and began to type and he could see me and now he's snoring!

We have an early start tomorrow - 7:30 we have to meet our guide's brother who is going to take us to Zeke's orphanage.  Please pray that Zeke continues to open up to us and that seeing his orphanage isn't too traumatic for him.  Thanks for all of your prayers!  We really feel them!