February 24- Gotcha Day

Hello Everyone, this is Aunt Kay.  I am posting Jason and Jen's daily journal entry and photos.  They've found facebook and goodle sites to be blocked.  It's a honor and a privilege to do this for them and a bonus because I get a sneak peek.  If you are anything like me, you can't wait to come here each day to see the updates.  So without further ado, and with the help of cut and paste, here is what they have to share about Gotcha Day...

Tovin arrived at 4:00pm with three of the workers from his orphanage, one of the directors and two assistant directors. 

As expected he was real shy and it took him quite a while to even think about letting go of the orphanage assistant who was holding him.  However, before they left he was sitting in Jen’s lap and hadn’t had much of a reaction when the assistant set him there.  At one point Jen said, “ok, something’s going to happen, because this just seems to be going to easy.”  We had prepared ourselves for the worst of reactions, being that he is almost 3 years old, we figured that he would be a little more vocal about his world being flipped upside down. 

When the people who brought him to our hotel left, he did start to wonder what the heck just happened and started grieving, which wasn’t as bad or loud as we had anticipated.  He cried on and off for less than two hours until we ate supper, and after getting something to eat while being held and comforted by Jen and listening to Addison giggle, you could just see his body relax and the expression on his face change. 

He’s going to be 3 next month, but he is definitely not at the stage of growth and development of a typical 3 year old.  There are a lot of factors that could be playing into this: he’s been in an orphanage his whole life, he hasn’t received the same attention, affection, and nourishment that children not living in a Chinese orphanage might get, he has a heart condition that is going to require open heart surgery to fix when we get back to the states…just to name a few.

We haven’t seen if he can walk on his own yet, but he seems to be able to stand on his own – however, it was kind of hard to tell because he was bundled up like the Stay Puft marshmallow man when they brought him to the hotel.  In the Chinese culture, especially in the colder climates (it was 50 some degrees here today…I know, not cold by Minnesota standards), it is unacceptable to dress infants and toddlers in anything that might result in them feeling the least bit cold.  Every little one we’ve seen with their parents around this city for example have been dressed like they are related to Alaskan or Canadian Eskimos.  

I’m pretty sure that he isn’t talking yet, but that might also be because he is really shy.  In the documentation we received before we left Minnesota it said that he was very introverted, quite, and shy.  That just might be the case. 
Just for some normalcy, we kept saying his Chinese name to him throughout the night, and if he happened to be looking away at the time he would turn and look at whoever said his name; as I was writing this up he was listening to some real soft music in the crib on Addison’s iPod in the hopes that it would help him fall asleep like the director said it would, and he babbled a little, and I’m pretty sure that I heard him say, every so softly, his name.

Like I said he’s behind, probably quite a bit behind where he should be, but we’ll find out more in the next few days, and if that’s the case, I’m sure that Addison will be happy to help catch him up! 

Speaking of Addison, Jen and I have been concerned about how she would do on this trip, how she would do with getting a brother, and a lot of different things being that she is a home body and in the past has always asked when we were going home if we were gone from home more than like two days, and that she has had our un-divided attention her whole life.

Well, I’m happy to report that she has not asked about when we are going home yet, has not asked about Henry our dog which is another reason she has always wanted to go home because she misses him; and today when Tovin showed up, she was a little angel, wanting to share with him, rub his arm or back to comfort him, bring him toys and she also colored a picture for him.  Then at supper she wanted to dance and giggle for him so that he could watch her and know that everything was going to be ok.  It worked; his first smile for us was during supper, because of her!  Wow.  So far so good.
We’ll see what tomorrow brings for them both.

Until then, good night,
Jason, Jen, Addison and Tovin.

p.s. – Nathan and Elizabeth, your Aunt and Uncle, along with your cousin Addison and newest cousin Tovin wanted to make sure you know that the sacrifice you are making for letting your mommy and daddy be with us and away from you for these three weeks is something that we will never forget.  We’re not sure we can even put into words how much your sacrifice has meant to us, other than we love you!  Hope you are doing ok!  Now with that said why don’t the two of you go give your Grandma Linda, Nanna Geri, and Grandpa Denny a big hug and kiss.  As far as your Papa Clarence, you can give him a hug and a kiss too, but I’d give it a second thought if I were you.  Love ya Clarence!  ;-)

This is the view from our hotel in Nancheng.

Tovin has a real dark complexion, Jen is jealous.  His cheeks are red from his cold.