China Update - July 19, Part 2

Not long after I posted this morning (late last night your time), we met Cameron for the first time. He was very nervous and apprehensive at first, but after a while, this quickly passed. After spending the whole day with him, this is what we can say for certain…..he’s very rambunctious, quite smart, independent, and is extremely inquisitive. Tell him or show him something once, and he remembers it. He is also quite helpful, always throwing his trash away, leading the way to wherever we’re going, holding elevators open, getting Angie or I a container of water, etc. He also has a fascination with anything mechanical (Grampa Yard!), which can be both a good or bad thing…….need to show him what is okay and not okay to “play” with (e.g., laptop, camcorder, etc.). He also has a fascination with taking pictures and, when dressed to go out this afternoon, told me (through gestures) that he wanted me to take his picture. He then proceeded to pose a few times on the chair while I did just that. You may see one of these attached to this picture. He is quite a cutie. He has shown several gestures of affection including reaching out to hold my hand in traffic for about a block, sitting on both Angie and my laps a few times, play wrestling with me at his initiation, a few brief hugs, etc.

Most of today was spent on process issues for the adoption. Tomorrow will be a full day of the same, as will Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday we will be visiting the Great Wall, while we visit the Forbidden City on Thursday. If all goes as planned, we will be flying to Guangzhou early Friday evening.

Angie’s typing here. Scott and I were nervous right before we met him at 10:00 a.m. Sunday morning. We met him in Mei and Jane’s hotel room with Mei getting it all on tape! Wow, what a wonderful experience that was! (I cannot explain it in this e-mail) He calls us Mother and Father. The language barrier is hard. Right now he does not care for the translator machine but we think that is because he has not mastered it. He did type on it, “This is real!” Wow, yes this is real, we are your family! I had to leave for a couple hours today to get adoption things done. Scott and Cameron had a wonderful time bonding during that time and he has really taking a liking to Scott. Scott is also very good with him. We all went swimming after supper and he helped us out in a bind and went to the desk and got locker keys for us. Scott and I did not know what we were doing. In fact, I went in the dressing room, came back out and told Scott “ I don’t get it”. Scott said Cameron has and he got us keys! Cameron had an accident by the pool and wound up getting three scrapes on his knees and one on his palm. That ended the swimming for today. He likes dogs and cats!!!!! The orphanage has a dog and cat. There is Mountain Dew in China! It tastes like ginger ale though. He is the size of Emily (our niece) maybe a tad bigger but not much. He really is a great kid. There are some boundary issues we need to address but not all at once. We are very happy to have him. I hope he feels the same. We are really enjoying China. Oh my gosh, that plane ride was something. The ride was good but way way to long. Cameron seems concerned and a little scared to get on the plane. Right now it is 9:30 p.m. Sunday, and Cameron is on Scott’s lap and they are watching t.v.. I hope this is a good program for him to watch. He seems to be enjoying it though. The food has been real good. That’s it for now!