It's Official - Herpin Family - Party of 5

** Just for the record - the wi-fi here is unbelievably awful. We have to sit in the lobby to get two bars and that does not allow for photo uploads. Getting wi-fi connected and trying to post the following took over two hours.**  So, no photos for now.

It is official.  Crosse is our new son/brother!!  Finally.

Gotcha Day was a tough afternoon.  As soon as we walked into the government building, Crosse became upset.  Understandably so!  He was there with his orphanage director and two teachers.  It did not seem that he was clear on what was happening.

We pulled out some photos and picture books we brought along.  When he saw that we had many Chinese friends including many Chinese children at home, that seemed to help.  Thank you CBCHC friends!!  Also we brought along a bilingual picture dictionary which also sparked his interest.

It was very difficult for him as he realized that he was going to leave his teachers behind and come back to the hotel with us.  His eyes were brimming with tears but his teachers kept telling him that boys don't cry.  They are strong.  He wiped his eyes and followed us to the waiting van.  Personally, I just wanted to hold him and tell him it was ok to cry. 

Immediately, he began taking a big brother role.  He helped Tru and Lin-Ley with their seatbelts in the van.  We returned to the hotel and he began trying to sign to us.  Many of the signs he has learned in Chinese are very similar to American Sign Language.  That has been very helpful.

Back at the hotel, we gave Crosse his new Kindle almost immediately because we knew he loved computers.  This was just the right ice breaker. 
We soon went to dinner.  Again, Crosse showed his caring toward Lin-Ley, Tru and myself.  When I showed him where the plates were (at the buffet) he handed us each a plate first before getting one for himself.  The first thing on Crosse's plate - M&M's and gummy sharks.  Then a hamburger.

That evening, while at dinner the hostess was kind enough to help us write notes back and forth to Crosse.  He was very interested to know, if we were all hearing, why we knew so much sign language.  We told him that we learned it just for him.  He just looked at us - perhaps not understanding why we would do that.  Perhaps the most amusing thing that passed across his paper was an exchange between Lin-Ley and Crosse.  He asked how old Dallas and I were.  She wrote the appropriate character for my age, 四十三 .  Crosse looked at it and jumped in his chair and he stared at me with wide eyes.  While Lin-Ley wrote the characters for 43, he read it as 413!  That took a minute to clear up.  Haha!

Back to the room and ready for bed.  Crosse was very easy.  I signed "brush your teeth", "take a shower", "pajamas on", "time for bed".  He literally jumped into the bed.  As I left the room I gave Lin-Ley a kiss, Tru a kiss, and as he watched with great anticipation as I came toward him, I gave Crosse a kiss on his forehead.  He just turned over and went right to sleep.

Crosse is a smart boy!  He reads and writes Chinese at record speed.  He is fast!  I assume that is rather normal considering that is his first language.  Or is sign language his first language?  I was pondering - Once he gets to America, and begins school, he will be quad-lingual (if that is a proper term).  That's impressive.

We have to give Lin-Ley a BIG shout-out!!  She has been impressing us with her Chinese skills.  She has been constantly bridging the language gap with Crosse.  He likes to write us notes in Chinese that she helps decipher.  We give her sentences to write and she does it!  I love seeing her use her Chinese!  Crosse is already correcting her characters.  Haha.  She is taking it all in stride and communication with her new brother with great pride.

Tru and Crosse are bonding over their Kindle games.  They lay together on the bed comparing their progress.  It is clear that Crosse is looking up to Dallas.  He looks to his new Dad to point out policemen, motorcycles, how high he can jump, and anything sports related.  Guy stuff.  As I type, Dallas has all the kids in the pool.

So, we have been together 24 hours now.  The adoption was complete at 10:30am this morning.  Again, Crosse's teachers were there which made his transition back to us difficult.  But, a trip to Walmart (we got a kick out of that) and a huge, traditional Chinese meal with our guide quickly got his mind off of his sadness.  At least for a while.

And here we go....  Party of 5.

Tomorrow, we are going to see the Terracotta Warriors.