I know I say this with every adoption day anniversary, for all the children - but it seems like just yesterday that we met him...and at the same time it seems like decades ago that he joined our family. It's hard to remember life without our Daniel Daniel Bo Baniel!
Since the beginning of January I've been working - a little at a time - on a project to bring all four of the children's travel journals over from the website they were hosted on, to our family blog. I started with Lily Kay's, since her Adoption Day was in January, Daniel's is next in June, then Elisabeth will come in August...and Noah pulls up the rear in October.
So, here is a re-post of that wonderful day in China, five years ago today, when we met our precious Daniel:
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He's made a perfect match half a world away!
Daniel is absolutely precious, adorable, engaging, beautiful, funny, AND smart!!! I know that's alot to pack into one little 31-month old body - but we got it all in this perfect little package!
As soon as we walked into the Civil Affairs office, we could see him! He has been described as shy in all the reports we've received, and I just knew we'd overwhelm him (who wouldn't be overwhelmed by having your entire WORLD turned upside down?!?!?) and that he'd cry and cry at our first meeting. Not so, at all! While all I could do was stare and try not to cry so I wouldn't scare Daniel, Elisabeth and Noah kicked into Big Sister and Big Brother mode right away: taking him toys and food out of his backpack, feeding him...and then KISSING him totally unprompted! God has absolutely blessed us with the three most precious children in the whole world!
We played and got acquainted for about an hour and then headed back downstairs to the van to go back to the hotel. The tears finally came when Daniel saw the van...I suppose he realized that he wasn't leaving the way he came. But Daniel's crying wasn't too hard and didn't last too long. He pretty quickly fell asleep on my shoulder...and took all of a 5 minute nap while we drove back to the White Swan.
Miscellaneous tidbits about our newest blessing:
He's 31 months today!
He weighs about 27-28 pounds (according to the bathroom scale).
He and Noah have already had their first "cars" playing episode, complete with crashing! (Noah has SO needed a brother! Elisabeth gets mortally offended if you try to crash with her!)
The orphange staff that brought him to us said he is not a picky eater. He seems quite healthy and has a good belly on him! (Totally different from his siblings on adoption day!)
He has an "outie" belly button.
He talks a little, and he has the cutest voice!
Our family is working on learning Mandarin...but of course, Daniel is from one of the two parts of
His laugh is also adorable! He's only laughed a little so far...but it is throaty and precious!
He LOVES stacking cups! When he unstacks them and lays them out separately, he lines them up (not necessarily in size order), but they do each have to be touching the cup next to them! (A man after his big brother's heart...and his parents' for that matter!)
The orphanage staff say he's a leftie. Just like his daddy, big sister and big brother! Everyone at the Civil Affairs office decided that I needed to switch over since I'm totally outnumbered!
He can feed himself, but doesn't mind being fed (which I'm glad about, because for bonding and attachment-promoting purposes, its best if his food comes from our hands right now)
While he's a good eater and not afraid to try new things, he apparently isn't used to food with much substance/texture (which is not uncommon and was not unexpected). He just kind of rolls the food around in his mouth until it breaksdown, he doesn't use his teeth on it (and he's got 16 of them!). This works fine with Cheerios...not so good with the french fries he tried at supper! He loved them and wanted more, but when he opened his mouth so I could feed him another one - there were two whole fries still right there! Like I said, this isn't unusual, but now I need to go back to all my yahoo groups (like "Toddler Adopt
The orphanage staff says that he knows how to use the potty. I don't know if he is used to a potty chair, or a squatty potty, or what, but he hasn't wanted to try ours yet, so we haven't pushed it.
When I showed him his toothbrush, he took it and put it in his mouth right away. But later, when it had toothpaste on it, he made a horrible face and started crying and wouldn't let it near his mouth again! We're using a travel-size Kid's Crest, hopefully he'll like the Tom's Silly Strawberry the kids use at home!
Please continue to pray for Daniel and our entire family. Pray that God would give us supernatural discernment about Daniel's emotional, physical, and psychological needs...that we would be the parents that he needs us to be right now. When I think about all he's been through in his short, little life...well, I CAN'T think about it, because I just want to cry! Please help us pray that the Lord's grace and mercy and most of all, love, will continue to cover every part of this miracle that is unfolding!
In Him,
Joli
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Love at first sight!
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Little nap on the ride back to the hotel
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Being shy
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Having fun at The White Swan
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