June 28th ~ WELCOME BENJAMIN JAMES ZI LEONARD

***MUST READ POST LISTED BELOW FIRST***

After what seems like forever, waiting this morning for our little boy to arrive at our hotel, I finally could not take it any more and I had to go down to the lobby to check things out for myself. As soon as I was in the main area, there he was! I quickly hid behind a wide column and starting spying on him. After a few minutes, I ran back upstairs to send Keith & Francesca down for a look for themselves. Once they returned, it took over an hour for him to be delivered to our room. As soon as the door bell rang, Keith rushed to the door to open it and there he was. One of his nannies was holding him and as soon as the two of them came into the room, I asked if it was OK for me to hold him. When I put out my arms to him, he simply reached out his arms and came right to me and held on tight. After holding him, rubbing his back, speaking soft words of love and of course feeding him some M&Ms, I decided to change his clothes (unfortunately the sandals I purchased for him are way too big so we will be hitting Zhengzhou Lotus store tomorrow for shoes). So far he has only "teared up a few times"...never really crying and not one bit of screaming, just some soft whimpering and tearing up but as soon as we see it happening either Keith or I quickly reassure him by rubbing his back, arms or legs speaking soft gentle words of comfort to him and he stops. Francesca is loving him ~ she just can't get enough and he is really taking a liking to her as well. We once again ordered room service ~ pizza, french fries and chicken wings ~ and he ate very well, Pretty soon I am going to have to head out to do a bit of paper work so this post will be short but before I end it, I would love to share a few photos that were taken and a little bit of information about him....

Benjamin is very VERY very tiny ~ smaller than Annabelle was.

He is shy by nature and is very observant!

He has really bond to both of us and knows how to put his own shoes on.

He is still wearing diapers...and (as of today) no longer on a bottle.

Might have some issues with his belly button and his testicles plus his bowel is also giving him some issues as well...

And as I am typing this, he is just SMILING away! {which is so priceless!}

But for now, you'll have to settle for these...

OK - that's about it for now for that LET'S GET TO THE PHOTOS!!!!!

I was able to get a few photos posted of Francesca and Benjamin playing - along with Benjamin sleeping! I swear he is taking my breath away and he is such a darling!


{PS - This truly was a blessing that he was delivered to our room for what we heard there were a lot of crying & screaming babies at the Civil Affairs office and from what Yisha said, it was crazy, crazy, crazy! Thank you Oh Heavenly Father Up Above for you had other plans for us today because our union was exactly how we all needed it to be ~ it was calm, peaceful, and simply beautiful!)