We have Maddux!!

Yesterday we got Maddux around 9AM. We got to the government building before the children got there. We waited about 5 minutes and then all of a sudden a door opened and both kids walked in with staff from the orphanage. We have a couple pictures, but not good ones since it was so sudden (probably good - less time for tears on our end!).

Maddux was shy at first, which we expected, but warmed up to his toy cars pretty quickly. No tears and he was very good. We were there for over an hour completing paperwork and talking with the orphanage staff (Jenne - the orphanage director was happy to see your pictures and remembered your daughter!).

After we were finished, we went downstairs (Maddux let us carry him downstairs), into the car and then into a grocery store. It was kind of like Walmart, with shoes, toys and groceries. Maddux has definitely been here before with his foster mom - he wanted to push the grocery cart. We got lots of water and some snacks with our guide that we think he will like, as well as some milk and yogurt. Then it was back to the hotel and we had our family picture taken for something we need tomorrow.

We finally got to back to our hotel room, but only for about 15 minutes. Our guide took both our families to lunch - Maddux did great and ate a ton (which has been a common theme for all our meals). From there we had to walk to the bank to exchange money - this was a good half mile, if not longer in both directions. Maddux did great - held our hands both ways, and let Jacob carry him up the stairs. We had to wait for about an hour in the bank. Maddux did great playing with his cars and his Magnadoodle.

We got back to our hotel room for good around 5PM - it was a long day with lots of activities that took longer than we thought. We stayed in and ordered room service. We also discovered that Maddux loves bubbles. We have a great video with him laughing and blowing bubbles - we will try to post videos and pictures later tonight when we have more time (we have another appointment in 30 minutes). We played with his cars and Magnadoodle. Maddux also discovered the camera and in about 30 seconds knew how to turn it on and off and take pictures. He also started repeating English words, including (and you are not going to believe this) hippopotamus!!! We have a book with 100 pictures and words that we went through with him this morning and he was repeating everything!

Finally took a bath (which he loves) and went to bed around 9PM. Maddux fell asleep quickly, since we had missed his nap that day. He slept til around 4AM. We have all been up since then, we got him to lay in bed with us and play for a couple hours before we got up. He also loves his harmonica - which I'm sure our hotel room neighbors and way less than thrilled about!

He is definitely a good eater - for dinner last night had both parts of a hamburger bun, half the hamburger, 3/4 of an order of french fries and 3 dumplings. This morning for breakfast he had 2 bowls of congee, an entire fried egg, along with a few bites of potatoes, fried spring roll and cheese. Pretty sure all this food is contributing to some stomach issues -we are going to ask about that later today, to see if he knows to stop eating when he is full, or keeps eating.

Sorry it has been so long since our update, I know you all were anxious! It has been going really really well, much better than we expected. He was only shy with us for about the first hour and then has warmed right up. We were told he may sometimes get motion sick in the car, so the plane rides could be really interesting!

We will post pictures and video to our blog later today - hoping we get back to our hotel in time for nap time.