Thanks so much for visiting us during our journey, Jim, Vickie, Amber, Anagrace and Austin!
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March 15, 2006
Austin continues to do very well. He loves playing with all of his new toys and is adjusting to his new routine well. He takes a good solid 2 hour nap each afternoon, going right to sleep with no fuss. So far he has slept well at night, other than a nagging cough. I had forgot to mention that on the first evening that we had him, as I was taking off all of his layers of clothing and checking him out to make sure he was okay, I noticed that the top of both of his hands were bruised. As I looked at them closer, it was apparent that the bruises were from IV's, as you could still see the needle marks. So we asked the asst. director of the orphanage what was the problem and here he had been sick with a cold and they had him hooked up to IV's giving him penicillin for 4 days. The orphanage where he is from has an excellent medical facility and it is very common for them to administer medicine in this way. We started him on the antibiotics that we brought for him and have been giving him some cough medicine at night. I think that the coughing bothers us more than it bothers him.
All in all, he is sleeping great and has yet to have any accidents with his pottying. We are still keeping pull ups on him just in case, but I don't think that we're going to have anything to worry about. He never asks to go, we just take him and he does his thing. What a relief to know that I have 1 of my 2 yr olds potty trained!
The language barrier has not been a problem at all. He will ramble in Chinese while he's playing or while he's looking out the window. He'll smile and giggle while he's talking. So whatever it is that he's saying, he seems to think it's funny. We're working with him on his English. So far he can say, mama, bah bah, gei gei (big sister), ball, potty, car, truck, and nighty night. He is very smart and is picking things up very quickly.
Today we meet our guide, after Austin ate another massive breakfast--this boy is an eating machine! I asked our guide to ask him if he's having fun and he rambled something to her in Chinese. I asked her, what did he say and she said, he says that he's very happy. I was so glad to hear this. Even though he appears to be happy with all of his smiles, it made me feel so good to hear him say it. He loves to give kisses to all of us and started giving out hugs this afternoon. He is just so lovable and sweet, I don't think I'll ever grow tired of squeezing and kissing those big cheeks of his.
We spent the morning hours visiting a local park. They were celebrating their annual Plum Bloom Festival. There were lots of people in the park and the blossoms were just starting to bloom. The weather was perfect for walking outside and it felt so good to be able to get out and spend some time in the fresh air.
Tomorrow we will be traveling to Austin's orphanage to visit. We are looking forward to seeing all of the children. This orphanage has an open policy with regards to visitors and picture taking, so be looking for a lot of pictures.
