Seeing is Believing!!!

Well, today was a watershed moment in the life of our family: we got to see video footage of our son Xin Lei for the very first time! Though we're not yet allowed to share this footage with the general public, we can confirm that he is adorable. The footage was short, but we were able to see him pulling up on a bar and showing off some tremendous mobility skills. The following is a re-enactment of what we were able to observe for ourselves:




It's truly amazing what 26 seconds of video footage can do to make all this sink in. It really had a profound effect on both of us. Andrea called me at work overwhelmed with tears of joy. And I looked at the video footage and just thought to myself, "That's our son." As an added bonus, the orphanage provided us with some additional Q&A kind of stuff about Xin Lei (two words we found out instead of one):

1. What is Xin Lei's temperament/personality?
   He is sensible and sweet. He has mild personality.
2. Does he prefer to play with friends or by himself?
   He sometimes plays by himself, sometimes he plays with the other kids. He likes Hong Yuan Qian the best.
3. What does he enjoy doing?
   He likes to play games with the other children or the nannies. He likes reading picture books recently.
4. What makes him sad?
   He could be scared when there is suddenly a big noise. He doesn’t like people to talk in loud voice. He doesn’t like to be held by strangers. (Andrea's completely screwed here on the loud voice thing. :-))
5. What calms him when he's upset?
   Usually we would hold him, pad (pat) him, then he could be calmed down.
6. What makes him smile?
   He laughs when we play games with him. His favorite game is peek-a-boo now. And he smiles when he listens to music.
7. What kind of toys are his favorite?
   His favorite toy is blocks, and toy piano. (Paige is already excited to share her floor piano with him.)
8. Is he a good sleeper?
   He sleeps well through the night. (Let's see how he does with two gassy dogs and old crotchety cats.)
9. What does he way and how long is he?
   Weight 8kg (18 lbs) Height 76cm (30 in long) Head circumference 44cm Chest circumference 46cm Teeth 4 on the top, 2 on the bottom.
10. We like the name Xinlei, is there any special reason he was given this name?
    Hong stands for Nanchang city which used to be named HongCheng. Xin means he was found in Xinjian county, Lei means bright and open.

Overall, he seems like a healthy, well adjusted, and likeable kid. And I'm gonna go out on a limb and toss out awesome as another adjective here for good measure. It seems like he's in a pretty good orphanage, so we're very thankful for that. It's great to know there are so many good people out there. Now if they'd just let us take it from here, that would be great.

Post By: James