Josiah!

Here I sit in the lobby of our hotel in Xi'An, , listening as an amazing musician (some type of a flat harp) attempts to overcome the in stereo construction work noise, while frantically trying to organize my thoughts into some type of order before my battery gives up.

 

Our day was insane, not bad insane, just insane.  First we awoke this morning at 4:45 am to 6 inches of the heavens finest white snow on the ground.  Okay, stress level goes up. Taxi.... china... in snow.... have you seen how these guys drive normally?  It ain't normal.  Well, we got lucky and actually had a taxi show up at the hotel, but he wanted 200 (normally its about 125), meh, its snowy so fine. 

 

Taxi in China in snow is totally fun (as in... are we all together?  check.  Do I know where we are going to go when we die?  check.).  Long story short... we end up sitting on our plan on the runway for 3.5 hours before taking off....the flight itself was only an hour and half.   Meaning our arrival to Xi'an was not 9:30 but rather 2:00 pm. But we made it. Even better, we didn't miss our appointment to get Josiah. Also, our guide and driver are great.   Top notch. 

 

Our hotel is fine... just no internet in the rooms..... but hey there is at least internet!

 

So, I suppose I should say something about Josiah since that is the reason you all are even reading this to begin with.

 

We were picked our by our guide and driver at 4:30 for our 5:00 appointment.  We arrived a little early to discover the meeting room was locked, so we waited in the entryway... right at the elevator.... waiting...  and out pops Josiah.  We have been stressing about him crying, or rejecting us, or thinking we looked funny, or you get the picture.  As April put it, instant love.  This guy has a great mellow personality, but also is very very smart.  He  went to April slowly, but stayed with her really well.  Joel was extremely patient let April and Josiah have some time together, and then me and Josiah had some time together.  No crying.  None.  Much different then last time.  Then the dynamic duo of J and J got started while I completed all the paperwork.  Joel started to play with Josiah, first with a pen he stole from me.... then with some toy cars.  They were a hit, laughing, playing, hugging, etc.  Josiah and Joel hit it off wonderfully. 

 

On the ride back to the hotel, I was able to play a game of peek-a-boo around the seats..... boy that kid can laugh!  We had the guide and driver laughing right along with us.

 

Back at the hotel, we started to undress him, and at this point Josiah got a bit worried.  We see this as a good sign, meaning he was somewhat attached to his orphanage.  But we got all 5 layers of clothes off.  Fed him some noodles via our dinner picnic. He likes to eat and already learned the sign language sign for "more". 

 

After dinner, we did a quick sponge bath and headed to bed.  Again he got a little worried, so April laid him on top of her.  Then it was almost instant sleep for him.  Hopefully the night goes smoothly as tomorrow its another day of paperwork.

 

Bummer, the musician gave up and my battery is about dead, so night night.