Day 6 - June 5, 3007

The big event for the day - Registration. We went back to the Civil Affairs Offices today and were interviewed twice. Both time we had to give our names, state that we accepted Micah as our own son, would raise him as our son, and that we would never abuse or abandon him. Once that was done, Micah officially became our son!!! Of course, we had to have our first official picture as a family - it's too bad we will have to wait another couple of weeks to have our complete family picture. Just to let you know, Micah is NOT crying because he has been adopted. He was sound asleep within 5 minutes of taking the picture. After registration, we went to a Chinese grocery store. Todd absolutely loves going to local markets and stores. He just kind of wandered around checking things out and soaking up the atmosphere. His great find - Chinese root beer!

The other big event for the day - Micah finally ate! The poor little guy is still confused about what is happening. Two of the ways he is dealing with everything are sleeping and refusing to eat. I finally forced him onto his back in my arms, pinned his arms to his sides, and shoved the bottle into his mouth. After a bit of head shaking and crying, he latched on to the bottle and drained it. It only took him 24 hours to eat for us!

In regards to Micah adjusting to life in a family: He is much more comfortable in my arms today. He no longer holds on for dear life. Rather, he cuddles down a bit, and plays with my hair and shirt. He has a favorite position already - facing me and sitting on my arm (not my lap - ugh). He woke up once last night and just stared into my eyes for about 10 minutes before going back to sleep - big improvement since he wouldn't look at my face yesterday. He is letting me touch his head and face now. He is reaching out to touch my face and glasses. He fell asleep on Todd twice today. I put him down on the floor in the playroom and he put both hands on my leg and tried to get back into my lap. And biggest of all - late this afternoon he started fussing to get us to pick him up. He is so terribly passive (won't reach out for toys, won't fuss to get attention or needs met, etc.) that when he started fussing to get picked up I said something to the effect that I was really glad to hear him cry to get attention. Todd looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Sweetie, I will remind you of that statement in a few months!"

We are still waiting to see if he knows how to crawl. He just sits in one place - has no interest in moving at all. Today he is wiggling around on his back, rolling over, and touching toys with his feet (his hands are busy - right hand firmly attached to his mouth, left hand firmly attached to my finger). After doing all my research on attachment, I am really excited to see all of this progress. So, to all of you out there who haven't read about the effects of orphanage life on little babies - it may seem silly to be so excited about these little things, but it's really magnificent.

Oh, Todd's absolute favorite discovery of the day - the parking garage under the grocery store has "bunk bed" parking spots because parking is at such a premium. Each bay has 7 spots - 4 on the ground, and 3 on lifts. The cars can be shifted sideways, another drived onto a lift, and then elevated, then the bottom car is slid back into its spot. He's such an engineer! He even took pictures :)