Last Night in Shenyang

Interesting day. One that fills me with hope. We had only one difficult episode this morning with Carson. Much of the other stuff was what I am beginning to believe is typical boy behavior.

We all slept in and ate things that we had in the room. We ventured out around 12:30 and headed back toward the street with the little vendors. We had lunch and walked around some. I believe it was in the low 40’s. At what temperature do you stop feeling your cheeks?

We came back to the room in the late afternoon and inspected the papers that our guide brought to us. This was our last chance to correct anything before going to GZ. She talked to Carson about getting on a plane. He said that he was nervous because he had never done it before. I can relate! He asked her if she would ask us if it was ok to call his foster mother and tell her he was leaving Shenyang. I said yes and asked if he could get her address so that we can continue to send her pictures and updates. Carson said that he already had her address in his backpack! Maggie checked and it was missing the zip code. He said he would get it.

Later he called her. It was odd. He called from the bathroom. It sounded like a calm conversation and I heard Guangzhou several times. Then I heard him saying his American name! She must have asked him if he had one. He was struggling a bit so I wrote it on a piece of paper and Keith took it to him. Carson said it out loud to himself and then made a noise like “aha” and then repeated it perfectly. I could tell that he was spelling it out for his f mom. He said it several times and sounded almost frustrated that maybe she wasn’t getting it right. It was very cute! He came and asked for a pen. I think he was getting the zip code.

After his call, he came out to where I was reading on the bed. He snuggled me until I sat up and he crawled in my lap. He was hugging me and telling me he loved me, both in English and Chinese. Was this last call with his f mom a bit of closure for him and the gateway to feeling that he could love me now? I am in tears as I write this because I want so much for him to know that I will always cherish him and care for him and protect him from everything I can. I know that eventually, he will trust and feel secure. Many other adoptive moms who adopted older children have said that their childs behavior improved more the farther away from the provincial city they went. You can’t imagine how much I hope that is true.

Maggie told him that we would be meeting up with another family that has 8 and 10 year old boys. I showed him their pictures online tonight and he seems interested. We are anxious to get to GZ. It will feel like home after being in a new place that is so cold and hard to walk around. The weather has been mid 60’s in GZ this past week. Heaven!

Six more days until we hold our little girls again! Thank you, Maury, for sending Halloween pictures of our little princess and pirate!