One Year Ago . . . January 14th

Today and tomorrow were waiting days. We had completed all the paperwork that needed to be done in Jinan except for picking up the final papers from the notary, which we were supposed to do on Friday morning. On Friday, we would leave for Guangzhou for the next stage of paperwork, but until then, we were just hanging out. As I would get to know more adoptive families later in the trip and after arriving home, I realized that many families use these “waiting days” to go out and sight-see, check out restaurants, shop, etc. It was not practical for us to do those kinds of things with Kellin. He couldn’t handle being held for long outings like that and he didn’t like lots of people and commotion around him. His world had been very, very small (basically, just a crib) and even the hotel room was a life-changing expansion of his environment. So we spent most of these days in the hotel room, trying to play, interact, and eat.

We walked back and forth across the room over and over. We sat by the window so Kellin could stare at the light for long stretches of time. We did attempt a short walk to a nearby grocery store to buy some baby food, but we couldn’t linger because Kellin became very fussy (his whimpers were becoming louder by this point, more like cries).

I snuck some baby food veggies into his next bottle and he drank it! At least he was getting different tastes and more nutrition. We had Pizza Hut again for supper and then watched the move Sister Act on TV (choices were limited). And that evening, Kellin was so tired and relaxed that he fell asleep in my arms. That was a sweet moment, although I still had to lay him in his own bed for him to sleep soundly during the night.

This is a picture of the restaurant/indoor courtyard view from our hotel room window, in the evening. The restaurant was gorgeous, but during all the time we sat at that window, I only saw a handful of people eat there. However, there was always at least one employee standing at the entrance, ready to greet anyone who might enter. This was a common sight in many businesses in China - many employees who appeared to have very little to do. For example, in the grocery store, you might encounter an employee in every aisle, just waiting to help you if you needed anything.