Two More Days

I am sooooo ready to come home. An adoption trip is exhausting, not even close to being a vacation. Today, Tuesday, was our consulate appointment and we had a glitch. One of the notaries used by the agency had an expired license so we get to notarize some stuff tomorrow. (Faye, could you meet us over here and take care of this?) We will still be able to do our swearing in ceremony tomorrow at the consulate and then head home the next day. Yay!!!! A 25 hour grueling airplane trip with two wild children and I am actually looking forward to leaving.

I think we need to get Tobey home and start working on what it means to have parents. Watching his behavior when we are out in public, I see that he thinks all Chinese women are put on earth to take care of him and that all he has to do is demand help. When we are at restaurants, he will yell across the room in Mandarin, "Ayi (Auntie), bring me some milk!" (or coke or whatever) The women at the laundry gave him candy once and now he demands candy from them everytime we pass the laundry, which is, unfortunately, right outside the hotel entrance. He tries to run to them if I don't restrain him. He strikes up a conversation with every Chinese woman in sight where ever we go. Of course, I don't know what they are talking about unless they tell me. The women always indulge him and give him free things if I refuse to buy something for him. Until we have him away from this environment, I will not be able to get him to bond with us. He is quite the character.

This morning he finally had a meltdown. He was first to get out of bed and promptly began turning the lights off and on and the radio off and on. He worked himself into a wild frenzy, running around acting crazy in general. When we didn't react other than to look fairly unhappy as we went about our morning routine, he put himself in timeout with his face in a corner. I have not punished him this way so it must be a form of punishment he had before. After awhile I tried to let him know that all was okay and he didn't have to stand there but he refused to budge. When I carried him away and tried to cuddle him, he fought against me and returned to the corner and began to cry. I decided to take Tabitha to breakfast to give him some time but my leaving set off some terrible wailing. I came back into the room and held him and rocked him while he cried loudly for about 15 more minutes. Stroking his face, I told him in Mandarin and in English that I loved him. Finally, he stopped crying, stroked my face and said in English, "I love you, Mama." That brought tears to my eyes. The rest of the day he was fairly calm but did have one other mini-meltdown in the afternoon.

Hopefully things will go smoothly tomorrow. Pray for my patience,please.