Family Day, Weston Cote

This morning at our 6 a.m. breakfast buffet we met a family from Canada that received twin 1 year old girls yesterday. Apparently their special need was premature birth, but as the new parents said, 'they seem perfect to us.'. The girls were tiny and very cute. Couldn't help but think of the twins that Sue & Robert were matched with. Gotta say, you're in for a real 'armful'! :)

Today we went to the Civil Affairs building in Kunming to meet Weston.
The Civil Affairs building was all a-bustle. The Canadian couple & twins were already there doing another day of paperwork. I joked with the mom that she bumped us (explaining her followup paperwork was hardly more important than our Gotcha day). Plus our expectation was high. We knew from 3 years ago they surprised us behind our backs and just walked in Mason for the first time while we were doing paperwork. I was pacing back and forth, trying to peek in each room, getting ready to knock a few doors down to find him.

Anyway, at the insistence of Mason, we eventually broke down and asked our guide if he was there or still in traffic. Still in traffic.

He finally arrived, and we got to hold Weston for the first time. Very quiet boy. The president told us he never cries. He also wanted to keep walking towards the president and hang out with him instead.

The paperwork in this province was much quicker that Jilin's. They had their own photo shoot room, which made that part much easier. Plus, due to "country-side adoption" they put in Weston's passport application a long time ago. The guide will follow up without us to get it. Easy! The only hiccup was they had one of our papers done up incorrectly. My name was spelled wrong and they had some California address on there instead of ours. Even after they fixed it, it was still wrong, so we had them fix it a final time.

Weston is all eyes as he watches everything. After about 30 minutes, he started sniffling and then stopped. Then 10 minutes later sniffled again louder and louder until he had a real cry. That lasted at least 20 minutes, and would have lasted longer but we were able to finally stick a bottle in his mouth and he started eating. So far he's eaten two rounds of formula, a banana, and some softer-than-cheerios cereal.

Weston, mom, and Mason were playing on the bed with his first toy we bought: oversized legos that has some wheels. He had fun making a large tower, and Mason loves being a big brother showing him "the world". Mom eventually had to go to the restroom, and so I hopped behind him in the family circle on the bed. His neck was bending back and forth looking for mom, and he started snifflilng again. He got off the bed, walked towards his socks and shoes, picked them up and walked toward the door. Sat down and put them on. Guess he's done visiting us, and ready to go back to the orphanage. Poor, scared kid.

Mom is back and Weston is feeling better. Lights are off, curtains drawn. He's leaning against her resting, but I don't think he's going to sleep. He wathces everything Mason does, leans against mom, and keeps a wary eye on me. ;)

Pretty interesting, and it's only been the first few hours!