Today was a day of firsts for our new family. Although Micah may have done these before, it is definitely the first time he has done them with us. We celebrated each one.
- First time mom and dad slept past 4:30 AM. Are we finally getting over our jet lag one week later?
- First time swimming. We were mandated to wear swimming caps. Not sure how that is going to help the hair on Matt's chest. Micah was hesitant at first, but then really loved it.
- First nap time today. We could tell that he was tired because he was being whiny and very ornery all morning. We also got to see our first tears! Generally, parents don't like to see their children cry, but we were elated that he felt safe enough to show us some real emotion.
- First time playing at the "park" by our hotel. It is back from the main street a little bit and does not get much traffic. This allowed us to play ball and play bubbles without worrying about people gawking at us. Micah had a good time and so did we.
- First subway ride to People's Park. He was a big boy and went down all of the stairs holding onto my hand.
- First amusement park rides. For $10, we rode on the carousel, bumper cars, mini roller coaster, and mini tilt-o-whirl.
- First time to Nanjing Road. Lots of high priced stores with American mannequins in the windows. Kind of boring actually. We're always worried what people might say to Micah and how he might respond. He did a good job for us though shooing off the beggars and the peddlers. "Boo yah"!
- First dinner at KFC. That is a very popular restaurant in this area. It seems to be almost as popular as McDonald's. Guess what Micah had ... chicken! This is not an odd order at KFC, but it is basically all he has had for dinner since being with us. It seems like he is going to fit in just fine with our picky eating.
- First "emergency" potty break (without a plastic baggie or a translator this time) and first squatty-potty experience on Nanjing Road. Imagine trying to find a bathroom walking down times square or some other large shopping district. None of the fast food restaurants (e.g. McDonald's, KFC, etc.) had restrooms. Thankfully, the word "toilet" is known by most people even if they don't speak English. Either that, or they understood what Micah was yelling.
We were directed into a "shopping mall" and told to go to the 6th floor. To get there we had to stuff into a small elevator in a hot hallway with a nasty smell. That brought us to a small restaurant. The bathroom was down a horrible smelling corner and past the kitchen. Since Matt took him to the bathroom at People's Park (equally disgusting), Deanna got to take him here.
- 100+ time people were staring at us, but first time waving back to them. Matt decided today to just start waving and saying hello to people that stare. We counted one lady looking back more than 10 times. One lady just about tripped walking down the road. Another older gentleman stared and smiled 3 or 4 times. "Ni hao!"
- Pictures at the Bund. This is a scenic spot in Shanghai looking over the river and the Shanghai skyline. At night, the buildings light up. We think it was fitting place to visit on our last full day in Shanghai.
Prayer requests for tomorrow: Please pray that Deanna wakes up without a stuffy nose and sore throat, pray that our paperwork is ready tomorrow morning when Traci our escort goes to pick it up, pray that Micah has a good experience for his first plane ride to Guangzhou, pray that Traci makes it back to her hometown safely, pray that we are able to connect with some other adoptive families in Guangzhou, and pray that our other two children back in States will not get too homesick while we are away. Today marks the end of a whole week since we've been in China. We are very much looking forward to the last leg of our journey. Thank you prayer partners!
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