March 31st in China

I am sorry I didn't get to post anything earlier. Our day started out early with Hudson getting up at 5. That meant in 48 hours I had 5 hours of sleep!!! We went down to breakfast and then headed to get our family photo taken. Abby smiled like a sweetheart but not Hudson. Oh boy...round two of the night before EXCEPT this time he was screaming for ME!! They needed to get a passport photo of just him which they eventually got 20 minutes later after Mark and I went outside. That was hard to leave him when he was so upset. It will be interesting to see what that turns out like. Then, off to Civil Affairs office. All went well, money accepted, papers signed and a little more info on Hudson. Mrs. Yang, the director came running over to him when she saw him yelling "Yue, Yue", his name at the orphaange. He saw her, smiled and gave the now all too familiar nod of his head with a grunt. When I asked her what that means she said "Look at me, pay attention to me". She also told me he was the "naughty one" at the orphanage. We laughed as we can see that....He is such a character and we saw that spunk in his eyes of our updated pictures of him. He has this real sweet side but I think a bit of a "Little Emperor" syndrome going on. He attracts attention from all, such personality in his face and very expressive with his eyes. He is so sweet with Abby, who has a very quiet personality. Mrs. Yang was telling the officials at the Civil Affairs office how they are very close. Their cribs were next to each other and they would walk out holding hands (we were given such sweet pictures of this from the orphanage). He seems to kind of watch out for her, feeding her cheerios and handing her things. Jenn and I both got teary watching them and hearing that, knowing they will live far apart, BUT we will be friends forever. Victoria, Madi and Kailee already have them married one day.......
Anyway, Hudson was very ornery at the office. He kind of wandered around in a daze, so many families, lots of English and Chinese. He has definetly attached to me but didn't even really want me there. The one picture above was when he did want me to hold him and laid his head against mine.....He seems to get nervous in large, close groups of people, like the elevator.
We finished ALL our paperwork today. They pushed all the famlies hard Sunday night to complete it all and brought it all to us last night. So, the next few days here we will just be hanging out, hopefully getting some good sight seeing in.
Once we got back to the hotel and he saw the kids and a now familiar room and hallway he was back to his goofy, happy self. He did get a short nap in and we ALL feel into bed at 8 O'clock. Woke up at 4 but I feel refreshed.
We are going to the zoo later today and a park. The weather is cold here and dreary. We need some sunshine and the kids need to get outside and some good American food....all they have here is KFC so we walked there yesterday and induldged on french fries and coke. All but my dad are burnt out on Chinese, he loves it!!
It is interesting to watch our three 2 year olds interact. Very different from American kids. I guess the result of being in an orphanage. They share very well, never say mine or pull away like our 2 year olds do when another child holds out their hand for their toy,,,they give it. Both Abby and Hudson pick up things off the floor, small pieces of paper, etc. and hand it to us. Hudson can play for HOURS with his stacking blocks. I watched him a long while yesterday while Jordan slept and everyone else was at the store. He seems to be so smart, I know, all parents say that but it is amazing how he knows how to stack them upside down from largest to smallest and place them in one another. He has incredible fine motor skills but really doesn't say anything. I asked Mrs. Yang if he did speak at the orphanage and she said "not much, he has a very hard time with words." We have started some simple signs with him....speech therapy is certianly around the corner.
I will try to post again tonight with less words and more pictures...LOL!!