All Hail King Quinn!!

Well, our special day arrived, as we welcomed Shi Lin Yu (aka Quinn) into our family at the Civil Affairs office in Wuhan, Hubei province.

Quinn is an amazing little boy, wound up like a top, full of smiles and laughter, playing for hours and hours and hours and hours and ..........zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

The staff at the orphanage must have done a great job preparing Quinn for his adoption, because (to this point) he has not yearned for his caregivers at all, and is comfortable around Ma Ma and Ba Ba, Hannah, Stephanie and Jennifer. His orphanage mate, Alice, is also on our floor which has probably helped in adding a bit of comfort along with the stash of cars that we brought along. Quinn is considered by the orphanage staff to be extremely clever and we can already see that in how he conducts himself. They also indicated that many people have wanted to adopt him and that we were the lucky family. Lucky cannot describe our feelings. He is such a joy.

For those out there with boys, we have learned in a matter of hours how things are going to change in a big way. So far, Quinn seems to be calling the shots - we needed to quickly learn Mandarin phrases for don't throw, don't hit, don't kick, don't spit food out, don't grab Jennifer's top - not that he listened to any of us. He is having a good time testing the limits - with a jolly laugh to add insult to injury. We are working feverishly to discover an approach that he will respond to but in the meantime, we are just having a wonderful time taking it all in. Child-proofing was a non-issue with the girls, but we suspect that we will need to institute this in some areas of the house. At the hotel, we are very fortunate to have a play room right next to our room. This afternoon, for at least several hours, we let Quinn and Alice, Hannah and Stephanie, and Alice's brother Evan and sister Gracie go wild in the room. The room was a tremendous hit, and later played host to another 3 previously adopted children from Holland.

Quinn enjoyed a bath this afternoon after delivering a lovely present for Ma Ma and Ba Ba. Though he is potty-trained, the language barrier delays things just enough to thwart a successful milestone. We will keep working on it. Quinn is also a lover of noodles, chowing down on several cups of soup throughout the afternoon.

After fighting and fighting sleep, Quinn is now down for the count (at approx. 6pm). Here's hoping for a long night's sleep. He certainly earned it and I think we did too :).

Stay tuned for the next episode of "King Quinn, Ruler of the Ottman Empire" ...