Our flight to Hangzhou was uneventful except for the terrible Western-style breakfast that China Air served. Our guide, Eva, met us at the airport and took us to the Zhejiang Hotel. The hotel is very beautiful and pretty remote from Hangzhou. In our room was a king size bed, a roll away for Jen and a crib for Hou Yong. It’s pretty crowded, but hopefully it will work out.

At 2:15 we left for the Civil Affairs office. Eva said that Hou Yong and the people from the orphanage were already there. The Civil Affairs office is on the 6th floor of a building with no elevator. It was a good thing that we had a chance to climb the Great Wall of China on Saturday; it was in preparation for this climb!

When we got to the office Hou Yong saw us and started crying and screaming and wouldn’t let us get near him. We tried just keeping our distance and that helped some. Jen became our ambassador and was able to get near him and at least give him some of the toys we had brought for him.

When I looked at Hou Yong he would start crying and clutch his caregiver. When Paul waved at him, he would wave back but wouldn’t go near him.

In the end, after all the paperwork was finished, his caregivers and the director gave he and Jen some toys to play with and left while his attention was diverted. It took about 5 seconds for him to realize what had happened and he started screaming and crying. Our guide tried talking to him but he wouldn’t calm down. The thing that worried me most was that the papers we signed said that the orphanage still had custody of him and that we promised that no harm would come to him while he was in our care. Oh great, I thought, how do you make that promise with an almost three-year-old?

He finally ended up letting our guide carry him. We had to go get Hou Yong’s passport photo and a family photo taken. Another challenge. Actually, the photos turned out pretty good. We then picked up supplies at a huge supermarket. Hou Yong grabbed onto a Dove chocolate bar and wouldn’t let go. Jen got him to stop crying for a while by feeding him M & M’s....(Another true Robertson!) Eva ended up carrying him the whole time we were shopping. When we got back to the room he was still crying and unhappy. Eva left a very unhappy boy with us.

We ordered room service for dinner. He ate something and calmed down. He was willing to play with Jen, but still didn’t want anything to do with us.

When it was time to go to bed, we decided to let him sleep in his clothes. He climbed into his crib. We did need to change Hou Yong’s diaper. When I went to change it, he had soaked through all his pant layers. I took them all off with him protesting loudly, put a Pull-Up and just pajama bottoms on him, and he went right to sleep. Paul hung his pant layers up to dry. There were shorts, long thermal underwear, heavy knit long pants and then flannel lined denim pants.

Here is Jen’s comment for today: When we were wrapping up things at the Civil Affairs office, Jen had followed our guide, Eva, into the hallway. Jen came back in and asked Paul if we were finished. Paul’s reply was “We are just starting.” Jen ran back into the hallway and yells “Hey everyone, it’s starting, it’s starting.”