More on Gotcha

I know Rob already posted about Gotcha Day, but I have to add that we were so impressed with the orphanage staff workers. We got to meet 3 of the workers and the orphanage director. They spent about 45 minutes talking to us yesterday (through translation by Helen, our guide) and then today we went back to Civil Affairs to do paperwork and they were there again. They talked at least another half hour with us today, telling us more about Matthew. The woman that you see in one of the photos was a caregiver. It was apparent that she loves him very much as she kisses him a lot and holds his hand. She made him the overalls that he is wearing and embroidered I Love China on the front and then in Chinese characters put the name of his province and the name of his city. She also made the little red shoes that you can see in the pictures. She said she wanted him to have something to take from China. I wanted to make sure to let her hold him again today, because I could tell that she was going to miss him. They were very open to my suggestion that we could email them updated photos of Matthew. In fact they repeatedly stated that they would be very much appreciative if in a few months time we could email them photos. I am going away from the whole situation feeling very good about the care that he received and they feel strongly with the more attention that he can receive with our family that he will continue to make faster progress. Both Helen and the orphanage workers thought they could see a difference in him in just this short amount of time – that he is more alert and interactive.

He came to us with three layers of clothing. It is the cultural norm to dress children in many layers, no matter the weather, but particularly in the colder months. Now that we know his size we went to Wal-Mart today and got some heavier clothing so that we can dress him in layers when we go out and about. Already today the caregiver unbuttoned his coat to see what I had put on him to make sure that he was dressed appropriately. She nodded her agreement on the warmth of the coat that we had put on him.

He came to us with a bit of a cold so he is now taking a good 2 hour nap. We will post more later.