John is a wonderful boy yet still full of mystery for us. I need to retract my earlier “statement he throws toys but not food…he clearly likes to throw both. Our observations so far are that he is intense and playful. When he wants something, he will furrow his brow (see photo); this is especially true when we are feeding him. He seems to be communicating “you’re not the boss of me”. When we arrive home we will be intently working on developing “family skills” for eating vs. survival skills.
He is very interactive in his play...bringing Ron or I his cars or stacking cups. He has a “self-soothing “ habit where he takes his finger and points it into his head. We have mirrored him doing this several times and he instantly begins a form of “Simon Says”. His giggle is delightful though not as plentiful as we would like it to be. Although he does not speak any Chinese, he is a good communicator using sounds, facial expressions and pointing.
Yesterday when Ron visited John’s orphanage (more on this in a later post), John and I walked in a large park. There were a number of older Chinese men and women walking who were so curious about John. Since the Chinese love children, I tried to teach John to wave to them. It turned out to be great fun for all as he would grin with delight when the people waved back.
However, we think the trauma of his change is creeping up at night. For two nights in a row he has woken up for several hours crying hard. We have checked all the possible physical reasons for these inconsolable tears with no helpful result. The first night he cried, we tried rocking him back to sleep with little success. Last night, I got up and played with him for a long time before putting him back to bed. Playing seemed to work better, although it was putting me to sleep.
Please pray a few things for us…1) that we would have insight in helping John sleep through the night – for his sake and ours. 2) I was stomach sick last night and Ron didn’t feel right either 3) we fly out today to Guangzhou for our last stop before flying out of China. Due to John’s cleft, he has fluid in his ears. Please pray that he would make the trip well.
Hopefully he will get tired enough in the next few days to fall right to sleep and stay asleep all night. I will pray for good health for all 3 of you. I guess it's like having a newborn - you have to sleep when he sleeps.
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