We have Owen!

We've been together for over 24 hours now and things are going really well!
We've been soo busy going here and there or trying to get kiddos to nap, etc so it's been hard to sit down at the computer and get this posted.

We went to the orphanage at 11 am yesterday and Helen brought us two bags full of stuff for Owen. One was full of all kinds of snacks and treats that he likes and the other had one of the boxes that we had sent to him with some of the clothes and toys that we had sent. The photo books that I had sent him were also in the box and some of the pages looked really worn, at least one of the pictures was even missing, so I think he was able to look at the books a lot. We were also excited because the Tiger doll that we had sent was dirty and looked played with.

We were shuffled from one room to another and then we were finally taken upstairs so that the orphanage director could speak to us. A few minutes later they brought in Owen and another little girl that was being adopted as well. I went to him and he just leaned on me. I know it was overwhelming for me, so it must have been for him. We pulled out one of the photo books and he pointed to his picture and said "HangHang", then when I asked him to point to MaMa and BaBa he pointed to our pictures.

We were only in that room a few minutes longer and then we were all shuffled out to leave. He started to cry a little while we were in the room, but one of the nannies came over to talk to him and that seemed to make it all better. When we got into the car I sat in the very back with him and he started to say a few things, but Helen really couldn't understand what he was saying. Helen did ask him if he was hungry and he said yes. It was past his normal lunch time, so we headed back to the hotel to drop some things off and then we went down the street to a restaurant for lunch.

We had told Helen that Cackie liked corn, so she ordered a corn dish for us that was VERY good and HangHang LOVED it! He easily ate 3 or 4 whole bowls of it, plus lamb spare ribs (right off the bone!), some sort of fried chicken, rice and steamed bread. The only thing that he had no interest at all in was the soup. Every time we tried to give him soup he would shake his head really hard! We couldn't believe how much of everything else he was eating! Now, looking back on it, I think he was afraid that we would take something away and that he had better eat while it was there.

We were able to get him to giggle and smile during lunch and we had a really good time. At one point Helen was able to get him to laugh with his mouth open and we were given an AWESOME surprise... his palate surgery has already been done! We had no clue about this at all!

After lunch we headed back to the hotel to try to lay down for a nap. We had to close all the blinds, turn off all the lights and Michael, Cackie, HangHang and I all laid down on the bed together for a nap. Good thing we were able to get a king size bed! We napped for not quite 2 hours and then we had to go out to meet Helen.

Before the nap we tried to let him take off his long sleeve shirt and sandals, but he would have nothing to do with it. After nap he allowed us to go ahead and change him into a tshirt, shorts & the sandals that I brought. I was soo glad we were able to do that, poor guy was getting really hot.

So, we met Helen and we all headed down to the McDonald's to use their play area. The play area wasn't much, but it was just enough for Cackie to run and have some fun and HangHang did some loosening up and playing. Helen treated us all to ice cream sundaes and it was soo cute to watch him eat it. He wouldn't let it out of his sight. Then Helen gave him a french fry and he loved it too! Nothing like creating a monster early, huh?

We played at McDonald's for quite a while, it was soo hot in there I thought I was going to melt. When we were done we stopped to buy a couple of drinks and we put HangHang's orange juice in a soft spout sippy cup for him. He LOVED that cup and wouldn't give it up. It seemed as if he was using it as a pacifier, but that was OK. He was riding on Michael's shoulders and loved it!

We got back to the hotel and none of us were really hungry (HangHang's belly was still tight!), so we just played a while. Then, Michael & I tried to give him a bath, but he definately did not like that! He watched Cackie take a bath after him and that seemed to help ease his fears. We'll try again later!

After bath we got the kids ready for bed and tucked into the big bed together. We tried sitting in the room with the lights out, but the two of them were getting into mischeif and wouldn't be quite. We finally got them to calm down, but they still laid there awake. Michael & I went out in the hall with the door propped open slightly and they seemed to calm down a bit more. We sat out in the hall until just after 10 and then got into bed with the kids. HangHang was still awake, but fell asleep fast once we were there with him.

I've attached two slide shows with all the pictures from the day