More information on our son.

Wow, what a day this has been. As Dan posted earlier, everything has gone wonderfully. Robby, or GangGang, as he is called, is doing amazingly well. So far the biggest tears/fit we have seen has been by Rachael. She was none too happy when GangGang was in "her" stroller, even though she didn't want to be in it. The little green monster of jealousy is rearing its' head, if Robby is doing something or sitting on someone's lap that is what Rachael wants too. That aside, they are getting along wonderfully. Tonight they were jumping from bed to bed and tickling and chasing each other. When we went for a walk before dinner, they were holding hands...too cute.

GangGang has had a couple of moments when he teared up, but he didn't really cry. He did allow us to hold him and he snuggled right down when he was upset. It is enough to break a mother and father's hearts. We know how much he must be missing his caregivers and familiar surroundings...and it hurts to see him upset. We know what we are doing is God's will and that we will be able to offer him so much, but it is sad at the same time.

GangGang seems to be right on target developmentally for his age. He draws faces including eyebrows and pupils, he jumps and climbs wonderfully and has a good throwing arm. We can already tell that he is going to be very active and a climber like Rachael. His hearing seems to be amazingly good. You have to speak louder sometimes, but not excessively so. It will be interesting to see what his audiogram looks like; that is one of the tests we will have run at Children's hospital in Columbus. His language is very clear. Okay, we can't understand most of what he says, but we can understand a few words and they are clear. He also appears to be very healthy; no rashes, infections, colds etc. He is a good weight and well proportioned.

Besides jumping on the bed, GangGang's favorite thing to do so far is to look at pictures on the camera. He will call us by name: GangGang, baba, mama, jie jie (older sister) and meimei (younger sister). We have not been using Kayla and Rachael's given names yet.

Incidentally, the picture at top is Xin Shagang coming into the room where we met for the first time, escorted by his teacher, Song Li. (For those who understand Pinyin, that's Xin1 Sha1 Gang1 and Song4 Li4). That's our first view of our son.