Welcoming Eli Home! ~ Part 1

Wow. I know this post is long overdue!  We have been home with Eli for 3 months now, and I am just beginning to feel human again.  This past year has been full of ups and downs and we are just thrilled to finally be home with our son.  It will be hard to sum up our trip to Ch*na as well as the past 3 months home in one blog entry, so I may have post several times to cover it all!

First of all, Eli is doing amazing!  He is blossoming into such an amazing little guy.
Our very first day with Eli was exactly what I had prayed for.  I knew he would be scared and confused, but I didn't want him to cry.  I prayed that he would feel comfortable in our arms and he did.  He was laughing and playing with us after just a few short minutes of being in our arms.  As I looked around the room and saw so many tears, happy tears, sad tears.... I was happy that our little guy felt some comfort in that moment.  Mommy had happy tears, so there were tears involved!  We knew he would grieve at some point, and wanted him to. But for that time we were able to enjoy some very sweet first moments together.

The first tears came when we got back to the hotel room and I started to change his diaper.  He had a very long ride from his orphanage to the government building where we met so he was very wet.  It was also winter and he had about 3 layers of puffy clothes on, so he was drenched in sweat.  The boy needed a bath!  We decided to just go for it.  He was so used to being bundled up all the time so he would just shiver and cry every time we changed him. He hated to be changed, and hated the bath! We also found out quickly that his grieving time would be at night.  He would wake up every few hours screaming and crying the most gut wrenching cry you've ever heard! My poor sweet boy.
 ~ How has he changed since then ?  He giggles like crazy every time I change his diaper now, and bath time is also full of splashing and giggles!  And he sleeps .....mostly through the night.  He still wakes up wanting a bottle and a diaper change. ;-)  But the days of the gut wrenching cry are over!

After my first bath back at the Hotel

The next day we went back to the Government office where we first met to finalize our adoption. He was our son forever!!  That afternoon we had to make the 2 1/2 hour trip to his hometown to apply for his passport.  This was the time we were supposed to be able to go visit his orphanage.  But due to time constraints, we were not able to do so.  We took a few pictures from around his city to show him one day. At the passport office we were able to speak to his orphanage director. She said that his nannies were all crying and would miss him very much.  She also agreed to email me some pictures she had of him.  We were so blown away to have received over 70 pictures of his life that we would never seen otherwise!  
This picture is our personal favorite!  ~ I believe he was probably around 10-12 months old at the time.

And also some cute baby pictures!!

I would have loved to snuggle him at this age!!!

That day was completely exhausting!  But very worth it!

Over the next few days we would do some local tours in Zhengzhou. We visited the Henan Province Musuem.  And visited the Shaolin Temple.  The Temple was so beautiful and there was still snow on the ground!  Shaolin is the "birth place" of kung-foo so we also enjoyed a Kung foo show!

At the Museum

In the mountains at Shaolin Temple

We so enjoyed exploring our son's birth place with him!  We look forward to the day when he is older and we are able to travel back as a family!    Next on the agenda... fly to Guangzhou where we will visit the U.S. Consulate and get Eli's visa to bring him home!!  Stay tuned for part 2!