China: Day 5 We Have Jordan!!

Oh what a day!  We woke up, showered and got ready, had breakfast then boarded a bus to take us to the location where we would get Jordan.  I was holding it together really well until about 5 minutes before we got there... when I started thinking about all we've gone through to get this boy and we were finally going to meet him.  I was overwhelmed with emotion for just a moment.  Then, right as we're pulling in to the parking lot, Vivian told us that Jordan could very well have beat us there because of where he was coming from.  Eek!  

Sure enough, our boy was already there!!  We knew he was tiny, but I was still surprised at how much smaller he looks in person.  He is so amazingly cute!

We started pulling everything out of our bag, trying to win him over.

We were told that an orphanage official, who he had never met, would be dropping him off, but it ended up being Nancy, his favorite nanny, and Heather, the foster care home director.  He kept running back to them.

But we kept trying.  What really won him over were the snacks we had brought for him.  He loves to eat, which is pretty amazing.

Playing "Pretend to feed Mama, then pull the food away".  This kid has a sense of humor.

I finally got brave enough to pick Jordan up and was amazed that he let me... he seemed slightly cautious, but didn't scream at me!  Our last update said that he doesn't like strangers and I have been preparing myself mentally for him to scream at us for a day or two.

He had a lot of happy moments, but also a lot of unsure moments.  He would seem happy and/or distracted, then he would suddenly get somber.  I think he was remembering his nanny in the corner of the room.

When Nancy, his nanny, was in sight, Jordan didn't want us to hold him.  It was easy to see that they loved each other.  We are so grateful he was in a loving foster care environment.  It was so great to be able to meet Nancy and thank her in person for caring for Jordan.  

Jordan loves his sisters.  Like REALLY loves his sisters. In fact, he prefers Maddie over both Ryan or me.  They had a lot of fun playing together while we talked Heather and Nancy and tried to get a better understanding of his routine.

Having our picture taken for the adoption registration officials.  

I have to say that overall, meeting Jordan went far smoother than I ever hoped it could have gone.  But we didn't make it though the day without some tears.  As walked back to the bus, Jordan tensed up and started crying.  He was fine playing with us, but did not want to leave with us.  He cried most of the way to the hotel and I wept right along with him.  It was a truly heartbreaking moment.  This little man has already dealt with an amazing amount of loss in his short life and it was so hard to know that in order to transition into our family, he would have to experience even more loss.   

He fell asleep looking our the window of the bus and stayed asleep while I carried him into the hotel and put him in his crib for a nap.

When he woke up from his nap, Jordan let me snuggle him while he drank his bottle.

Then he let me feed him some noodles and a banana.  

Then he spent a good amount of the afternoon playing with his sisters while Ryan was out working on paperwork.

When Ryan got back, they played together for a while. Jordan is still unsure about Ryan, but is starting to warm up to him.  One of my favorite moments of the day was when Ryan was leaving to exchange some money at the bank and I told him to say, "Zai jian Baba" (bye bye daddy) and Jordan waved and blew kisses to Ryan.  Seriously?!?  This kid knows how to blow kisses?  It was too cute!!

We went out to dinner with two other adoptive families.  Heather (the foster care director) told us that Jordan is very independent, as if he's tired of people underestimating him because of his size, so he has to show everyone that he is fully capable.  We got to experience that at dinner.  He wanted to feed himself rice and noodles and made a complete mess in the process.  It kind of looked like a tornado had hit the restaurant when we were done, but our boy mostly fed himself.

The shirt under Jordan's overalls has the pictures of other babies from the Swallow's Nest homes on it.  It was fun to see his little friends on his huge shirt.

He loved his first, and much needed, bath!

All jammied up, and wanted to feed himself his bottle.  

I sang to him, and after he finished his bottle, Jordan went right to sleep.  

It was a really amazing day.  I'm so grateful to have this little guy peacefully sleeping just 4 feet away from me.  We're excited to continue to get to know him tomorrow.