One Week Later...

Our adorable son has already been with us for one week. What a blessing he is! Things are going so much better than we could have ever imagined they would. He was definitely well prepared for this new chapter in his life. Praise God! His hearing also seems to be better than we thought it would be. We were prepared for very little, if any at all, hearing and speech. We are amazed how well he seems to hear. Chinese people will talk to him, and he responds appropriately. He hears us talking to him and is repeating our English words back to us. There does seem to be some frequencies he does not hear well. We have appointments with the specialists next week, and we're excited to find out just what he is and is not hearing.

Speaking of appointments with specialists (wink, wink), Ji Hao had his medical exam for the American Consulate this morning. He has been so brave in all of the new situations he has been thrown in to over the last week.

This doctor was so nice. Ji Hao heard, understood, and followed all that the doctor was telling him to do. The doctor told us that Ji Hao has "a good personality".

See the two girls in the purple dresses?? They are newly adopted 7 year old twins, and they are exactly what I was preparing myself for our son to be like. They are absolutely adorable, but oh-my-goodness, they are WILD! They are all over the place, talking loudly, and hitting anyone they decide they want to hit. I even saw one of them hit the doctor! Shortly afterwards, the doctor told us that Ji Hao had a good personality, and that these girls were "naughty". He said it all with a grin, as you could not help but think they were funny and charming.


So happy to have passed the medical exam!!

After the exam, we took a cab off the island to Liwan Plaza (a huge shopping center). The highlight of that excursion was all of the inexpensive movies the kids found at the CD/DVD store. These are actually packaged nicely, and the ones we tried have been good quality -- much better than the ones we bought on Shamian Island.

Walking to Papa John's Pizza for lunch!
Ji Hao closely watching as Ba Ba draws a self-portrait.
Ji Hao thinks Ba Ba's self-portrait is sooo funny (and a little off)
Studying Ba Ba's masterpiece

Ji Hao always picks out the most delicious looking thing on the menu. Today, it was a Snow Kiss, which is Sprite with sherbert and cream on top. Mmmmmmmm.

This morning, I woke up with shopping on my mind. As most of you know, Shamian Island is loaded with shops catering to adoptive families. Most of the shops carry the same merchandise, but prices vary greatly, and you are expected to bargain. The moment you walk passed a shop, the girls are yelling "Hello! Come inside and look!" By the end of the day, several of them will know your name, your adopted child's name and province, etc. Last time we were here, the bargaining process was fun. This time, we just want to be left alone to browse and shop. For those of you coming to China that may feel the same way, check out Jordan' Place, located at #3 Shamian 3rd St. (down near Lucy's). He and an elderly woman (possibly his mother) are the only ones in the store, and they leave you ALONE to browse and shop. No girls following you around asking, "You like?" everytime you pause to look at something for more than a second. A dream come true! Because of this, we stayed there and shopped for a long time. His prices on most things are lower than what we've seen other places, likely because he isn't paying 10 girls to irritate customers :o).

At Jordan's Place, Ji Hao finally saw some shoes he loves. We brought him three pair of shoes, but he has not wanted to depart with the shoes he wore when he first came to us -- Who can blame him....after all, they are Ultraman Max shoes (?????)? So, when he got all excited about these Croc-like shoes, and then tonight when he asked to wear them, I was pretty excited!

So cute! He is definitely a Croc kid!